The Disney Vacation Connection computer desktop widget

One of the things that I enjoy most about my family’s Disney vacations is the anticipation, the planning, and the countdown – how many days until we check in?

Now Disney has released a great tool leading up to your vacation – the Disney Vacation Connection desktop widget for your PC or Mac.

Pluto and his Mickey ears suitcase welcome you to the Vacation Connection widget. It first asks you if you are 1) wanting to see what Disney destinations has to offer, 2) planning a trip but haven’t booked or 3) already booked and can’t wait to go.

You choose your option, and in the case of already having booked a vacation, you’re asked to plug in your dates, your resort, your home zip code and more to customize your experience. If you haven’t booked yet, it showcases all the Disney destinations and has you choose what’s best for you.

My favorite part of the widget is the countdown clock – now I know exactly how many days I have to wait until I pass under the big Walt Disney World sign and start to feel the magic of my vacation. The widget also displays the weather at Walt Disney World and the weather in your home zip code – so it would be something useful on the day before or day of your journey to the World.

There are even more features on the widgets. Under “My Destination,” you’re given a checklist of things to do before your trip, such “Check in online up to 10 days in advance” and ‘Make your dining reservations up to 180 days in advance.” This is a great checklist for a Disney newbie.

There’s also a helpful event calendar tab listing all the major events at the Walt Disney World theme parks. A “Trip tools” tab shares video overviews of all the theme parks, as well as a video on “Enhancing your Celebration,” which gives tips on celebrating your anniversary, birthday or other special occasion.

Click here to download the Disney Vacation Connection desktop widget. I hope it aids you and entertains you as you count down the days until your Disney World vacation!

This post is part of the DisMarks Disney Blog Carnival! Check it out for more great Disney-related content and information.

Enjoy Crepes or Escargot in France

The Epcot International Food & Wine Festival is a yearly celebration of food and spirits from around the world, running in 2010 from October 1-November 14. This year, the festival is celebrating its 15th anniversary, and they’ve pulled out all the stops!

At the festival, you can try food, wine and beer at international booths situated around the Epcot World Showcase; attend free and low-cost seminars on food and wine with renowned chefs; and indulge in decadent meals from around the globe at culinary events at various Walt Disney World restaurants. Then you can top it all off with one of the nightly concerts – Sugar Ray, Air Supply and Boyz II Men are just a few artists who will visit the Epcot America Gardens Theatre stage.

Here’s more on what you can expect:

International marketplaces:
More than two dozen international booths will be set up around the World Showcase Lagoon, showcasing cuisine from around the world. Small plates will be available for purchase – some of which will be eligible as snack credits on the Disney Dining Plan. New this year is South Korea, Belgium, and Charcuterie and Cheese booths. You can also get a Marketplace Discovery Passport and receive stamps from all of the booths! Click here for Food and Wine Festival Booth Menus.

Free and low-cost events:
Culinary demonstrations and food and wine pairing seminars will be held daily for as little as $8 per person, with booking for the general public available Aug. 28 (Tables in Wonderland members and Annual Passholders can book on August 26th). And there are many free events to take advantage of, such as book signings and author meet and greets, bottle signings, short films and seminars. Click here for information onFood and Wine Festival free and low-cost events.

Special culinary events:
These more pricey events are for those wanting to truly indulge in a food experience for the senses. Booking for these events began on July 20, so hurry and get your spot reserved (call 407-WDW-FEST). Whether you’d like to get a taste of the festival before anyone else (Delicious Discoveries First Bites, Sept. 30, $195), experience a night with Cat Cora herself (Celebrating Family & Friends in the Kitchen at Kouzzina, Oct. 29, $140) or feed your cheese obsession (Cheese seminars, Saturdays, $75), there’s something for every foodie. Click here for 2010 Epcot Food and Wine Festival Special Events.

Eat to the Beat! Concerts:
Each night, various artists will play concerts at the Epcot America Gardens Theatre. Showtimes are 5:15 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. nightly. Taylor Dayne starts off the concert festivities from Oct. 1-3, while Big Bad Voodoo Daddy pulls up the rear from Nov. 12-14. In between are a host of artists such as Jon Secada, Taylor Hicks, Sister Hazel and more. Click here for the 2010 Eat to the Beat! Concert Schedule.

Hopefully that helps lay out what you can expect from the 2010 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival! You can keep you to date with the Disney Food Blog’s index page on the festival here! Or check out the 2010 Epcot Food and Wine Festival Guide and Map!

Be sure to follow us over on Twitter (@DisneyBasics) to discuss your Food and Wine Festival plans!

This post is part of the DisMarks.com Disney Blog Carnival! To read more great Disney posts or learn how you can be part of the carnival, click here!

36 holes may seem like a lot, and in fact both courses are charged in 18 hole increments. The current fee as of this writing is $12 for an adult and $10 for young children. So if you want to play all 36 holes, and adult would have to pay $24. While this may seem a bit steep, like everything in Disney World the price is justified by the excellent presentation and implementation. Also note that Annual Passholders can get discounts of up to 50%. Groups are spaced out so you may have to wait a few minutes to start your round, but generally the wait is not more than 30 minutes, even at peak times. An 18 hole round can take anywhere from about one to two hours in a typical case.

Fantasia Gardens

Fantasia Gardens is located within the Epcot Resort area. The first 18 holes, Fantasia Gardens are a fairly standard, if impressively themed mini-golf course. The second 18 holes, called Fantasia Fairways are more like a true golf course, except on a miniature scale. Fantasia Fairways is generally the more difficult of the two and may appeal more to full-scale golfers. In fact it was voted the longest and most difficult mini-golf course in the world by Golf Digest.

Winter Summerland

The story behind Winter Summerland is that it was built by Santa’s elves. The elves however had differing opinions on the preferable environment for the courses. Thus 18 holes of one course are in a summery setting, while the other 18 are in a wintry setting. Neither the Winter course nor the Summer course are as challenging as Fantasia Fairways and are intended more for casual mini-golfers.

Either of these courses can be an enjoyable activity if you’ve gotten worn out of the crowds in the parks. You can even reserve a tee-time for later in the day if you’re worried about the wait. Do be aware that there are no buses directly to the courses. However you can get near them either by taking the Blizzard Beach bus for Winter Summerland and the Swan & Dolphin bus for Fantasia Gardens. For those looking for a change of pace on their Disney vacation, these can be a great option.

Image Copyright Disney

Disney World has a wonderful perk for those staying in Disney’s on-property resort hotels: Extra Magic Hours. We speak about them briefly in our How to Create a Touring Plan section of our Guide to Disney World, but I’d like to go into a bit more detail today about one park in particular — Epcot.

There are lots of questions about how to make the best use of your Extra Magic Hours in Epcot, so here are our suggestions based on whether you’re visiting for Morning Extra Magic Hour, Evening Extra Magic Hours, or both:

Morning Extra Magic Hour

Morning Extra Magic Hour in Epcot offers Disney resort hotel guests access to some of Epcot’s most popular attractions for one full hour before scheduled opening time. Usually, this means you’ll be able to enter Epcot’s Future World (with your room key!) around 8:00am instead of the 9:00am opening time. Attractions available to guests at this time will be:

Living with the Land
Mission: SPACE
Soarin’
Spaceship Earth
Test Track

Don’t be concerned that World Showcase isn’t yet open; you’ll have plenty to cover with just Future World attractions, whose lines get extremely long later in the day and sometimes even during Evening Extra Magic Hours. For Morning Extra Magic Hour at Epcot, arrive 15 to 30 minutes prior to the gates opening. Once you show your key card and go through the gates, head straight to Soarin’ — this is Epcot’s most popular ride. If fastpasses are available, get a fastpass, then choose to either ride Soarin’ without the fastpass (then come back later to ride with your fastpass) or head over to Test Track for a spin around the racetrack! Once you hit those two rides, proceed along to your other favorites! You should be able to cover all of the “big ticket” attractions within two hours if you make good use of your Extra Magic Hour!

Evening Extra Magic Hours

Epcot’s evening extra magic hours usually extend for three hours after the park officially closes to non-resort guests; most of the time, this means you’ll have access to the following attractions from 9pm to midnight:

The American Adventure in the American Pavilion
Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros in the Mexico Pavilion
Honey, I Shrunk the Audience
Journey Into Imagination With Figment
Living with the Land
Maelstrom in the Norway Pavilion
Mission: SPACE
Soarin’
Spaceship Earth
Test Track

You’ll see that the World Showcase pavilion attractions have now been added into the mix! Our ideal use of Extra Magic Hours in Epcot is to hit the Future World attractions during morning Extra Magic Hour and save the World Showcase attractions — and shopping your way through the World Showcase — for evening Extra Magic Hours! Why? Because fastpass is usually unavailable during evening Extra Magic Hours. This makes getting a ride on Soarin’ and Test Track very difficult; while parks might not be as crowded as they are during the day, it’s still a safe bet that the majority of the park’s attendees that evening still want to ride Soarin’ and Test Track!

Your best bet in the evening: stick to less popular rides until the very end of the evening when most guests have headed home to bed. That’s when it’s most probably that the lines for major rides have shrunk.

Summary

• Arrive early — even for Extra Magic Hour mornings
• Try to ride all “big ticket” attractions during morning Extra Magic Hour, when fastpass is working and lines haven’t yet built up
• Save less popular attractions, shopping, and exploring World Showcase for Evening Extra Magic Hours

Epcot is a fun and exciting theme park for all guests, but creative and skillful use of Extra Magic Hours can make your visit much more enjoyable!

This blog post is part of the DisMarks Disney Blog Carnival! There are lots more great Disney blog posts and articles there, so check them out!

But cheer up — there are a lot of ways to make counting down the days to your upcoming Disney trip just as fun as the trip itself (well, almost!).

Create a Countdown Chain
Making a countdown chain out of colorful paper is great activity to make the trip countdown “real” for kids. It’s easy to do, and the kids can help. Just cut colorful paper or construction paper into strips, decorate the strips for each day before your vacation, and tape or glue the strips into a long chain.

Every day before the trip, your little ones can tear off one more chain link and watch the countdown chain get shorter and shorter — and their Disney trip get closer and closer!

Use a Countdown Ticker
A lot of us grown-ups spend many hours on the computer each day, and creating a computerized countdown ticker is a fun way to watch the days, hours, minutes, and seconds before our Disney trip tick away!

If you’re a member of some message boards or forums online, MickeyPath.com has some fun countdown tickers that are easy to make. All you do is enter in your basic trip information, choose a format, and paste the resulting code into your forum signature line!

And Disney’s even creating their very own desktop widget to plan for and count down to your upcoming trip! At DisneyVacationConnection.com you can learn about this cool new “toy” for your desktop, and sign up to be the first to hear about it when it officially launches:

What are some of your favorite ways to count down to your Disney World vacation? I’d love to hear your tips and tricks for making those days go just a little bit faster!

A Typical Kids' Picks Sign

At most Disney World quick-service restaurants, you can now find a program called “Kids’ Picks.” This program not only gives kids the option to customize their counter-service meals with healthy choices, it also makes those healthy picks the primary options!

Here’s how it works: when you and your child approach a Disney counter-service location, your little one can choose from the standard kids’ meal entrees available and then choose from the list of kids’ picks for side items and drinks. The primary options listed as side items are relatively healthy choices: usually dishes like fruit gelatin, applesauce, apple slices, grapes, and carrot sticks. For a drink, your child is given the main options of milk, water, or apple juice.

Now, in small print, the kids’ picks signs will always give your child the choice of adding standards like french fries, chocolate pudding, cookies, or soft drinks, but these are cleverly hidden below the giant cartoon images of the healthier options.

It’s just one more way that Disney is redesigning their dining and upgrading their menus resort-wide to give you and your family healthier choices for theme park food.

Guess What! This post is part of the DisMarks Disney Blog Carnival! Click on that link to see many more fantastic blog posts about Disney food, planning, history, and more.

There are two monorails at the Magic Kingdom. One goes from the Transportation and Ticket Center to the Magic Kingdom. The other goes through several resorts as well as the TTC. In fact, both of the monorails actually go through Disney’s Contemporary Resort. From the TTC, you can also ride a monorail to Epcot and back. This is a much longer trip, but once you’re there you actually circle the park and get amazing views before you disembark.

Unfortunately, cost has been prohibitive in the expansion of the monorail system. Disney’s newer parks, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom are not serviced by the monorail system and there is currently no plans for them to be. Nevertheless, the monorail can provide a fun and convenient way to get around in Walt Disney World resort.

For more information about Transportation in Disney World check out our Free Guide to Disney World! The guide covers getting around and just about everything else you could want to know about.

Photo Credit: Express Monorail

We’ve decided to do a series on the unofficial Disney resort fan sites that have been popping up around the web. They are invaluable resources, and the series will also give us a chance to talk about the various resorts a bit — some of our favorite topics!

Pop Century is one of Disney’s “Value” resorts, which are the lowest priced resorts. What’s great about value resorts is that you get the chance to stay on property for a low price, and you also get access to all of the Disney Resort Guest benefits, like extra magic hours, Disney’s Magical Express airport transportation, charging merchandise items and meals to your room key, and Disney transportation.

The Pop Century Resort Site can be found at http://www.popcenturysite.com, and has great information if you’re trying to decide if this might be the best resort for you.

Hundreds of recent photographs are available to show you what the Pop Century guest rooms look like, what the 3 pools are like, and even pictures of the bus stop and transportation options. This site is very useful when comparing Pop Century to other Disney resorts.

Personally, Pop Century is one of my favorite Disney resorts, and I feel it offers a fantastic value for the money. There are advantages to staying in every resort and we don’t always stay in Pop Century, but it’s always a great value when we do.

Roasting Smores Before a Movie on the Beach

1. Park tickets are expensive. Even with Disney’s new ticket pricing model, you can still save some cash if you spend a couple of days on the outside of those turnstyles.
2. Park touring can be tiring! Lots of people find that, especially on their first Disney trip, they aren’t 100% ready for how much energy it takes to tour the parks (having that much fun can be exhausting!). As a result, they return home wiped out and find they need a vacation after their vacation! A great way to avoid this is to work in one or two days that you spend relaxing at the pool, hanging out in your hotel, or doing other Disney World activities that might not be quite so intense as a day in the parks.

Ideas for High- and Low-Energy Activities
Just in case you don’t feel like doing any more research, here are a few ideas of how you can fill those off-days, depending on your energy level! (General cost is noted with a $$$=over $50 per person; $$=over $20 per person; $=up to $20 per person; FREE)

High Energy
If you have lots of energy and are prepared to go-go-go all the time, these suggestions are for you! This is probably best if you are adults traveling without kids, or if your kids are a bit older and wouldn’t benefit from napping or down time at the hotel on your “off-days.”

• ($$$-$$) Try a Disney World backstage tour. While most of these DO take place in a theme park, the experience is completely different. You can learn about how the parks and their attractions are conceived, built, and run. Even if it’s your first trip to Disney World, any Disney fan will enjoy trying these out. Prices range from less than $20 to over $70 per person. Discounts are available, just ask about them when you call 407-WDW-TOUR to book.
• ($) Consider renting bikes and riding around the grounds and surrounding areas at one of Disney’s Resort hotels. Our favorite place to rent bikes is Disney’s Wilderness Lodge resort, where there’s a great nature trail. You can even rent surrey bikes! Rent bikes at resort marinas; cost is usually about $9 per hour or $18 per day for an individual bike.
• ($$$) Learn to surf like a pro at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon! Guests 8 yrs old and up can sign up for surfing lessons that take place at Typhoon Lagoon before the park opens to visitors. Call 407-WDW-PLAY for more information on this opportunity. Cost is $150 per person.

• ($$$) Head out for a little bass fishing. Most Disney World lakes offer private catch and release bass fishing boat tours. These depart several times per day, but, of course, the best fishing is in the morning. Call 407-939-BASS; cost is about $260 and includes an experienced guide, rod and reel, tackle, bait, beverages, and a one-year BASS membership.
• ($) Play a round of Miniature Golf. With four courses on property, you’re sure to find one you enjoy!
• (FREE) Spend the evening at Chip and Dale’s Campfire Sing-a-long and Movie at Fort Wilderness resort. This is one of the ONLY times you’ll see Disney characters without paying for a meal or to get into a park. The free perk is a fun opportunity that few folks know about. You can’t make reservations; just show up at Fort Wilderness around 6:30pm in the Winter months (7:30pm in the Summer) and ask for directions to the campfire. This is best for people with little kids (the sing-a-long is definitely kid-focused and the movies on the big outdoor screen are all rated G), but adults can enjoy it too. Buy the “s’mores kit” and roast marshmallows over the campfire; it’ll bring back memories. Additionally, several other resorts (including Contemporary Resort, Wilderness Lodge, Grand Floridian, Yacht and Beach Club Resorts, and All-Star Movies) now offer free “movies on the beach” many nights of the week.

Other Websites With Good Ideas for Activities Outside the Parks
There are definitely more options out there after these! Some great resources for researching these activities are the following websites and pages:

• WDWforGrownups’ Other Activities page offers dozens of links about activities outside the parks. These are categorized into easily navigable sections. Our favorite section is Leisure and Recreation, which includes links for golf, boating, arcades, horseback riding, bike rental, mini golf, archery, and more. While the website is geared toward adults, these links apply to families and those with children.

• AllEarsNet.com’s Beyond the Theme Parks page offers a comprehensive run-down of options, including some interesting writing and reviews done about Disney World activities by guest writers

Hopefully this helps as you round out your plans for your Disney trip! Remember, touring those theme parks can be tiring; consider taking a few days off during your trip. You may not even have enough energy for the activities above; don’t forget that it’s NEVER frowned upon to spend the day in a hammock or lounging by the pool. Those are the best free activities around!

Sign Posting Wait Time for Tower of Terrow

I know you hate the idea of “scheduling” your vacation; so do I. But just doing a small amount of planning can help you save time and money in Disney World. Just think: by creating a touring plan, you can easily save yourself countless hours of standing in lines waiting for 4-minute rides!

Touring plans can be brief or extremely detailed. It all depends on what you want and with whom you’re traveling. You can create them yourself, ask a travel agent for help, or engage the service of several companies who can customize touring plans for you.

What’s a touring plan look like?
Touring plans are usually just step-by-step itineraries, crafted to take advantage of the times when rides, parades, and events are least popular with other guests. Here’s a sample touring plan from TouringPlans.com, which is the website for one of the best Disney World guidebooks on the market: The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World.

Animal Kingdom Touring Plan (c)TouringPlans.com

While this is a less-detailed touring plan for a day at the Animal Kingdom, you can easily create more detailed touring plans or broader touring plans, based on how scheduled you’d like your vacation to be. For more examples of touring plans, fill out the checkboxes on this page and submit to see samples that fit your criteria (be sure to check the “free plans” box).

We recommend that if you’re traveling with a lot of people, or with several little kids, you make a more detailed touring plan. This will allow you to schedule around naptimes for the little ones, and around what will likely be large meal times for a group or family.

How do I make one myself?
Making a touring plan yourself may take a little research and ambition, but it’s absolutely possible. In fact, we recommend doing a few touring plan drafts so that you get a better idea of the geography of the theme parks and which rides are the most popular.

• Look through a guidebook or two (our favorite is the one we mentioned before: The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World) to figure out which rides, restaurants, and attractions might be best for your family/group.
• Study some Theme Park Maps to get a better understanding of where rides and restaurants are located.
• Figure out what the most popular attractions are in each Theme Park. These are usually the ones to visit early in the morning, before the lines get long. We believe these are:
  • Magic Kingdom: Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Peter Pan’s Flight, Winnie the Pooh, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Haunted Mansion
  • Epcot: Soarin’, Test Track, Mission: Space
  • Disney’s Hollywood Studios: Toy Story Midway Mania, Rock-n-Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, American Idol Experience, Fantasmic (the night time show)
  • Animal Kingdom: Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safairs, Kali River Rapids, Dinosaur, and the stage shows–Festival of the Lion King and Finding Nemo, the Musical.

  Figure out which of these rides on top on your list; they’re the ones you want to head to first in your touring plan.

• Visit TouringPlans.com, where there are more sample touring plans as well as some great mini-guides to each theme park.

Now, take a shot at writing up a broad touring plan for one of the theme parks you’d like to visit. Just list the rides and attractions you don’t want to miss, schedule the most popular ones in the morning, and schedule the rest according to importance and geographic location. Don’t forget to add in time and restaurant choice for breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner.

Once you have this broad overview, consider if the fastpass service can help you save time. With this service, you can avoid waiting in longer lines by “reserving” your ride time in advance. Here’s a primer on how fastpass works, and which attractions offer fastpass. If you’re going at a particularly busy time (look here to determine the busiest times of the year to visit WDW), you will likely want to use fastpass for most of the more popular attractions.

How do I ask my travel agent about these?
If the research and development above seems a bit too intensive for your first trip, consider working with a travel agent to book your hotel, flight, and other reservations. If you work with a Disney-trained, specialist travel agent (called “Disney Vacation Specialists”), s/he should be able to develop touring plans for you, or help you to develop your own.

Can’t I just throw money at it?
Of course you can.

• TouringPlans.com has a subscription service where you can access their detailed touring plans (a WIDE variety of specific touring plans), theme park “cheat sheets,” and research articles on Walt Disney World for $8.95 per year. Subscribe here.
• Ridemax is a relatively new piece of software that will generate touring plans for you. For ~$20/3 months and ~$30/year subscriptions, the investment might be worth the time-savings for a lot of folks. We haven’t used the software, but SoloFriendly.com reviews the service here.
• Tour Guide Mike (TGM), a service created by a former Walt Disney World VIP tour guide, offers an online vacation planning system for $21.95. This can be used for only one vacation; if you wish to renew for another vacation, the price could be discounted.

So, as you can see, there are several options to help you plan the best possible Disney World vacation. While this may seem stressful in and of itself, the most important tips to keep in mind are these:

• Visit the most popular rides in the early morning
• Schedule some down time in the afternoon for napping and relaxing
• Choose up to four main attractions in each park that are must-sees; after that, relax and go with the flow. Nobody can do EVERYTHING in Disney World. Remember, this is your vacation!

Relax. Have fun. And feel free to send me your touring plans for feedback!