Mousekingdom Blog

That’s been the question on my mind when I was in Paris this weekend. We had a trip planned to Paris without a visit to Disneyland. Going to the top of the Eiffel Tower was big priority, also a visit on top of the Arce du Triomphe was on the list. A visit to  Montmartre, a walk next to the river Seine and a stroll down Champs-Élysées was also on the program. I could even visit a couple of comic book stores at the Latin Quarter. But I couldn’t help myself, Disneyland Paris was so close and it was on my mind. Toy Story Playland just opened and I would not go and visit it? How could I do this… Well, it looks like I couldn’t. Come Sunday I was on the RER and hopped over to visit my beloved park.

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So I go away for a week on a non Disney holiday and didn’t find the time to add any Disney magic on the blog during the trip. I did get to visit the comic shop in Hasselt (Belgium), Magische Poort (The Magic Gate) to get my Disney fix. If you’re ever in Belgium, make sure to visit them. (Molenpoort 5 bus 2 – 3500 Hasselt)

So, now I’m back it’s time to get back on the Disney train with the Disney news and fun. So what did I miss on this week? Disney tickets getting more expensive again. I’m sure you all know about this already so I wont bore anybody with my thoughts on this, but I do ask myself how they can higher them way above average index growth every year. I guess we Disney addicts can’t help ourself and will keep on paying the price. If we keep on going in this pace we will hit the $100 for a day ticket very soon though…

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You can never start planning a Walt Disney World trip early enough. Not because it’s that difficult, but it’s just so much fun planning and thinking about the next trip.

With a planned trip in August 2011 we still have about 14 months to go, but as a Disney Vacation Club member the 11 month window for booking will be there soon enough.

So the first thing to plan, after dates have been picked, is the location. With our main Disney Vacation Club points being for Disney’s Old Key West it’s no surprise we will be there for the majority of our time. We can squeeze 9 days into it. That leaves me with some points from my Animal Kingdom Villas points. Although we did love the Animal Kingdom Villas, we might be using the points elsewhere.

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It isn’t easy to get a good shot of the Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World. Even from the lift hill, as it’s best to get that camera away and protected from the high splashes that are going to come down on you. Still, I love the atmosphere of the lift hill and just want to try to get a good shot just before entering the attraction. I would love to get a picture while on the lift hill as it will make a great shot when going up and through the mist.

Personally I think this is one of the nicest wild water rivers I have been one. It’s a little short, something a lot of people comment on, but there is no other one as nice as this one out there.

Orlando locals and visitors might disagree with me and would pick the Islands of Adventure Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges as the better (and even wetter) ride, but even if this one is great, it still can’t beat Disney’s Kali River Rapids wonderful atmosphere.

Well, for now these are the best shot I could get. If you got one or know of one let me know about it so I can stare at it and dream away.

Don’t forget about the animals in Animal Kingdom. They are great, fun to watch and when you talk with one of the cast members you can learn a thing or two. Most of the cast members apointed with an animal have some very good knowledge of them. I find it a shame to see how guests run from one attratction to another but just don’t want to take the time to visit the animals. Me, I could go to the Tigers and stay there for hours. But those are not the only once I will visit. I’ll go on the Maharajah Jungle Trek every time I visit the park to see the tigers, but I also love the Pagani Forest Exploration Trail To see all the other exotic wildlife. Plus visiting the animals is a perfect photo opportunity. Those Meerkats are very photogenic. A visit to the Conservation Station is also an absolute must, but unfortunately not visited by all those guests entering the park. There are some really nice encounters with animals over there. If your lucky they’ll have a snake out that you can touch. Kilimanjaro Safaris seems more accepted by the general public, maybe that’s because this animal encounter is considered more of a ride and attraction.

I love Animal Kingdom! I think it’s an Imagineering Masterpiece with even more amazing animal encounters. I never been e real fun of a zoo, but this is so different. So next time you visit Animal Kingdom, don’t forget to see the animals. Pick up your camera and make some great photos. There is enough time to do this between two Expedition Everest visits.

Location, location, location… it’s important for everybody. If you buy a house for yourself, buy to let or if you go on holiday. Choosing a Disney Vacation Club location is no difference. You want the best place with all the fun and good stuff Disney is known for. So how to choose one place for your trip? Not always easy, so why not pick multiple places and move around a little. You’ll get to know the places and get your favorites picked by the end of the holiday.

On our last trip we got to stay at three of Disney’s Vacation Club resorts. So I though let’s compare them and share my thoughts on these three. Why my favorite is indeed my favorite and what other DVC location I would still want to visit and could be in the running to change my favorite in the future.

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“You’re not going to take another picture, are you”. I heard my son saying this a couple of times on our Walt Disney World trip, especially near the end. I got my camera out every 5 minutes to take pictures, multiple pictures of the same thing, again and again. At the end it was a little too much for his liking.

But I always say “You can never have enough pictures of the Castle”! And that is so true.

While there is no castle at Animal Kingdom, there is another iconic “building” that deserves to be on multiple pictures. It’s the Tree of Life of course. (more…)

For those that followed my live trip reports, I hope you enjoyed them. Obviously there are a whole lot more of stories and pictures from the three weeks but I didn’t always have the time (or I was relaxing at the pool) to write them all down. So here is a first one from a new series I’ll be posting on the blog.

As a Disney fan it’s always nice to see and hear about Disney secrets. Disney tries to keep the magic by hiding all the technical part for the viewers. They don’t want to give away the illusion of the act, but sometimes things go wrong and we get to see something unintentional. This happened to us during the Nemo Musical show in Animal Kingdom. At a certain moment in the show a front curtain is going up so the next scene can be performed. However, revealed behind the curtain guest can now see the backstage area. (more…)

One last time to Animal Kingdom to get the last stamp on Kids Discovery. One last time to Hollywood Studios to ride the Tower of Terror one more time. One last time using the pool at the Kidani hotel. One last time to Epcot for my son’s Birthday dinner celebration. (Thank you to A.J. And all the other Cast Members from the Crown & Rose for signing the birthday card) One last time Illuminations.

Three weeks of magic are over. Back to reality… and planning for our next Disney vacation!

Been to Walt Disney World for 5 times now and I must admit, with a little shame, that it’s the very first time I went to visit Tom Sawyer Island. I don’t know why I waited this long but am happy I finally made it out there.

It’s a fun place to play but I especially liked the dark mine. It could be a little scary for the little once, but I was drawn to it. Tow Sawyer Island is a great place to play and one could enjoy this for hours, especially kids who like to go on a discovery tour. Don’t wait until your fifth visit like I did though…

Today was going to be our last day for the Magic Kingdom. So the plan was to do some of our favourites for the last time on this trip. This included Haunted Mansion and the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. The TTA has been a favourite of mine since the first time I visited the Magic Kingdom so I was a little sad when I found out it was going to be closed during this trip. But a couple of months before this trip started opening dates for the ride where released. TTA would open on the 24th (if I remember correctly) so I was very happy and excited.

Entering the park today we went to the TTA first to find it… closed! As a TTA fan I was very disappointed to still see it closed. I had hoped to ride it a couple of times today but now will have to go home and wait for at least two years before I can ride it again.

But I didn’t stay sad to long though. Being at the Magic Kingdom, and with so many other things to do, how can you stay sad. Oh, and it’s just another reason to start planning the next trip once we are back home!

Today we went for a swim in the morning and stayed at the pool for the private Lunch option they bring poolside. It was a very good lunch but in the kids pizza menu was a small piece of plastic most probably coming from some food packaging. No harm done, we are all human and mistakes can happen, we just put it to the side and continued enjoying the lunch. However we did tell the person behind the bar about it, just to make them aware of it. This is where Disney shows their true costumer care. Only minutes later the restaurant manager was with us apologizing multiple times. The lunch would not be charged and when we returned from playing at the Animal Kingdom park we got a nice surprise waiting for us in the room.

Well, thank you very much Disney Cast Members. It shows how great the Cast Members are and how much they care about their guests. We can all make mistakes, and this was an honest mistake that could happen anywhere, but the way the Cast Members at Disney deal with it was amazing.

OK! We did get to play at the Hollywood Studios, Including 3 rides on the Tower of Terror, A visit to the moon of Endor, a trip on the rock’n'Roller coaster and we even tried and succeeded to break our Toy Story Midway Mania record. It was a lot of fun but the best bit was at the Kidani villas where we got to see a big group of wonderful animals from very nearby.

Just have a look at the picture, it might not be a masterpiece, but it will give you an idea what to expect at the Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani villas… Pure magic!

“Welcome home!”. This time we will be greeted like this for the last time. We moved to the Animal Kingdom Kidani villas for the last part of our trip; a 5 day stay in a studio with Savannah view. It was a little sad closing the door behind us at Old Key West but when we saw the view from our balcony at Kidani all was forgotten and big smiles formed across our faces.

This is just one picture from over fifty I took from the balcony and all within an hour. With a view like that I’m not sure if we are going to get anything else done for the next 5 days…

We planned to ride Test Track using the single riders line and where surprised with the long queue lines. 100 minutes on stand by and FastPass was queueing all the way outside. The single riders line was long too with a waiting time of 20 minutes. Once we entered the queue the ride was 101 (Attraction down) so we just left as we didn’t want to wait. We got us some free drinks from the Cool Station instead (having some fun with the people trying the Beverly drink) before going over to Italy for a great lunch.

We where very surprised with the long wait times and the amount of people in the park. The same surprise when we took the boat over to Hollywood Studios. Again, big queues! That’s something we didn’t expect the last week from August…