Marvelous Mouse Travels

Park Bag Essentials

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Thank you so much to Katie Eadie for this helpful information on what to pack for a day in the parks!

Going to Walt Disney World can be so much fun, but in my opinion, it’s good to be prepared for the long day ahead! That’s why it’s important to me and my trip to have the right things in your park bag.  Not everyone chooses to carry a backpack, and that’s okay, but when I go and have my kiddos, it’s important to me to keep all the essentials in a bag that they will need! And if you’re in Disney and have a cute Disney Bag, it’s even better!

If you do decide to carry a park bag, it’s important to not over pack it with things you don’t need! Here’s a list of 10 things I put in mine:

1. Ziploc Bag: I talked about this in another post, but Ziploc Bags are good for everything! Wet clothes, keeping things from getting wet, leftover snacks, etc. One thing I have always done is pack a gallon Ziploc bag with an extra pair of socks for everyone that way if your shoes and socks get wet on a Splash Mountain, you at least have a fresh new pair of DRY socks!

2. Baby Wipes: They’re good for everything! Sticky hands and faces, wiping up some ice cream someone might have spilled on a bench, even for a little refreshing cool down on a hot summer day!

3. Hand sanitizer: Because germs are EVERYWHERE! Use this!

4. Band-Aids: Accidents happen! Boo boos happen! Blisters happen! Band-Aids are your best friend! And I’m sure you can find some cute Disney ones to make the boo boo heal faster because the Band-Aid is obviously more magical if it’s Disney. ☺

5. Gum: Because Disney doesn’t sell it, so if you want it, you have to bring it!

6. Portable Charger: Good for charging your phone up to make sure you have enough battery to take pictures of EVERYTHING!

7. Chapstick and Sunscreen: That Florida Sun is HOT! Sunscreen is a must to keep your skin healthy and safe!

8. Light Jacket: For the evenings if it gets chilly.

9. Snacks: Snacks at Disney are expensive unless you’re on the dining plan, so it’s always a good idea to bring some extras just in case! We like to pack things like goldfish, trail mix, granola bars, and more easy stuff that is just grab and go!

10. Small Fan: We always find small battery operated fans at Walmart to keep in our bags for those hot afternoons! And the ones that are mist fans, are even better!

Resort Highlight: Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort

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Resort Highlight: Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort

When you are planning your next Walt Disney World vacation, make sure to check out Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort.  This Southwestern-themed Moderate resort is located in Disney’s Animal Kingdom Resort area and features over 1900 rooms in 3 areas (Casitas, Ranchos & Cabanas), 6 on-site restaurants, the Dig Site – a large pool and recreation area – in addition to 3 leisure pools, jogging trail, playground and arcade. The newly refurbished rooms are comfortable, modern and still bring a bit of character fun into each room!

Our king-sized water view room in the Casitas area welcomed us with crisp, white linens, Southwestern colors and décor, a Mickey towel decoration with welcome letter and so many “upgrades” that you cannot see in the photo! Each bedside table came equipped with USB charging stations, personal reading lamps on each side of the headboard, and large surfaces for all of your travel items!

           

As you can tell by the photo, the updated dresser/desk combination provided tons of storage in addition to a coffee/tea station with Joffrey’s coffee stocked each day!

The refurbished bathrooms at this resort are a Deluxe feel at a Moderate price.  Check out all of this storage! We were able to fully unpack our luggage and have plenty of room left over to store bags of souvenirs from the parks!

 

Thank you to Lindsay Smith for sharing her experience at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort! Reach out to Lindsay or any of our marvelous agents when you are ready to plan your next adventure!

Walt Disney World with Special Needs: What You Need to Know

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Thank you for joining me today as we discuss Special Needs, DAS, and Walt Disney World.
A little background about me: I have been with Marvelous Mouse Travels for 4 years this August. I have always loved Disney; loved so much that when I was given high school graduation gift of a choice of a trip to Paris or a week long trip to Disney staying at Yacht club ~~ I picked Disney! And I am a HUGE Stitch fan

 

Now you may be wondering how I know about special needs and what it takes to navigate WDW?
Meet Tommy and Abby!!
These two kids of mine SOMEHOW managed to gain the love for Disney also. My husband will tell you it’s genetic 😉 They both have Down Syndrome and both have their own personalities and things they like and don’t like so we have to navigate with those parameters.

 

This is a wonderful tool that is used to help decrease the time spent waiting in line. On the first day that you go
to the parks, go to guest services and ask for the DAS and explain why you need it. They will assign it to the one member of your party that needs it. Now in our case, we assign it to one child. It is good for that person and the others in the party up to 6. NOW, there have been cases they will allow more people on with the child. It is dependent on how busy  the parks are.
Now.. how does DAS work??? So glad you asked. Say Tommy wants to go on Soarin. We get up to the line and the
wait is a L-O-N-G 60 minutes. Oh NO!! But, Tommy and I can walk up to the cast member with his magic band (or card if you are staying off-site or do not have a magic band). The Cast Member will then assign us a time to come back. Example: We walk up at 10am. The wait is 60 minutes. We are told to come back at 10:50 and go to the Fast Pass line. Easy! While we wait, we look at decorations, grab a snack or even catch a ride on something else! The big thing about DAS is that you are only allowed ONE AT A TIME! You cannot grab another ride until you have used the one on the Magic Band/Card.
So another question we get often as agents is do we really need to book the Fast Passes because we have the DAS?!?
One word: YES! Combining these two together will help cut down on wait times. After using the first 3 fast pases, go into the app and grab the next ride. Use the DAS pass between Fast Pass rides/times! It’s a sanity saving, meltdown preventing trick to do while there and it works in all the parks!
Next thing to discuss is loud noise. It’s everywhere! Between the crowds, the parades, and let’s not forget the
fireworks, it can be very overwhelming!! So my suggestion is to look at getting noise reducing headphones! These can be purchased on Amazon for fairly reasonable costs.
Some kids and adults do not have capabilities to regulate their body temps.
There are great items out there to help with this! Cooling vest, cooling towels, cooling head wraps to name a few. They are very easy to use. Some you simply wet with water and they will work for hours. Some you have to bring ice packs to use. Something I want to mention is if you do have a child/adult who needs these and find them pricey — Check with your insurance to see if they can be covered under your policy as Durable Medical Equipment. The doctor may have to submit for Pre-Determination to see if it may be covered along with the medical notes stating the condition is there. I can tell you that Abby does not tolerate the heat well and we have used the cooling wraps. They are a God-send!

 

Now … the meltdowns.. they happen! I am not going to lie and tell you our trips have been meltdown free.
They haven’t!
Sometimes you need a place to go to get away from all the stimulation the kids/adults are getting from the sights and sounds around them. This is where finding quiet spots and knowing where they are can help and sometimes you only need a few minutes to do so. The Disney transportation is great if you want to chill for while. Hop on the Monorail! Grab a seat on a ferry. If you only need a few minutes one great one is the baby care center. They can go in, relax for a bit, and then head back to the park recharged! There is one in every park.

Walt Disney World on a Budget

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Anyone who knows us knows that my husband and I are two of the most frugal people on the planet.
A lot of people assume that the words “frugal” and “Disney” can never go together, but that’s
not necessarily the case. Walt Disney World is one of our favorite places to travel as a family, so we’ve
come up with a system for making those priceless Disney memories on a budget.


Tip #1: Be on the lookout for discounts and promotions.
Disney does go “on sale” pretty regularly. Disney releases several promotions throughout the year
for either discounted rooms, packages, or free dining plans. There are also military and Florida resident
discounts. If you’re planning your own trip, you’ll need to check Disney’s website pretty regularly in order
to apply any applicable promotions to your reservation. If you’re working with a travel agent, your travel
agent will notify you when a new promotion is released and then apply it for you.


Tip #2: Bring your own food into the parks.
A lot of people don’t realize that you actually are allowed to bring your own food into Disney World.
Our family doesn’t like to have to spend time or money getting snacks in the parks every time one
of us is hungry, so we bring crackers, fruit snacks, and bottles of water to carry with us. It keeps
everybody happy and keeps a little extra money in my wallet!


Tip #3: Bring your own souvenirs.
This may seem like a contradiction in terms: isn’t a souvenir something you buy while you’re on a trip
and then bring home with you? In most cases, yes. There are certain items that our family likes to pick
up in the parks as a memory of our trip. However, there are also little things sold in the parks that catch
my children’s eyes, but aren’t the type of item that they will get a lot of use out of at home
(the glowing souvenirs sold during the fireworks are a good example of this). So, I bring those types of
souvenirs along with me. Before we left for our most recent Disney trip, I went to the dollar store and
picked up a pack of glow-in-the-dark bracelets for my kids to wear during the fireworks show. When the
show was over, we threw the bracelets away and that was one less thing I had to pack in my suitcase
for the trip home!


Tip #4: Visit the Disney outlet stores.
There are two amazing Disney outlet stores in Orlando that sell some of the same items that are in the
parks, but at much lower prices. For instance, I collect a particular style of Disney princess coffee mug.
The last time I was at Disney World, I bought one mug at Disney Springs at full price. I went to the outlet
store the next day and found the same style mug in perfect condition for 70% off. There is some great
merchandise to be found at the outlets and, if you visit the outlets before your first day in the parks, you
can stock up on t-shirts and other great items to wear during your trip!


You’d never know that one of these mugs cost 70% less than the other.


Tip #5: Use your park time wisely.
This tip may not seem like it belongs in a list of ways to save money at Disney World, but as the old
saying goes: time is money. I feel that I’m getting the most value out of my Disney vacation if I’m
maximizing the time that I’m spending in the parks. That means making effective use of the
fastpass+ system and advanced dining reservations and walking in with a plan for each day. I’ve
learned through experience that if I don’t map out a plan in advance, we don’t get to do a lot of the
things that we want to do in Disney World because we’re wasting our time waiting in lines. A good
plan and a thorough knowledge of how things work at Disney World can give you more quality time
in the parks. A qualified travel agent, like those of us at Marvelous Mouse Travels, can help you plan
your Disney vacation in such a way that you make the most of the time and money that you’re spending
at Disney World.
A special thanks to Ginger Pierce for these marvelous money saving tips!

Disney’s California Adventure Food & Wine Festival: Ride, Wine, and Dine!

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The 2018 Food and Wine Festival is happening at Disney’s California Adventure from March 2 through April 12. Jaclyn paid a visit recently and gives us all of the delicious details on this Disney dining festival.

For the past few years I have been wanting to try The Food & Wine Festival at Disney’s California Adventure. I have heard great things and we decided to join in on the fun this year. The Food & Wine Festival is located inside Disney’s California Adventure Park. Every year, for 6 weeks, the Food & Wine festival hits with amazing culinary creations, family friendly seminars, live music, and special tastings with world famous chefs(at an additional cost). Basically take your favorite food festival, add a little music to it, and put it inside an amazing theme park for the perfect trifecta!

We arrived as the park opened at 8am and bought our theme park tickets, as theme park tickets are required to attend the Food & Wine festival. We went on a few rides and I scoped out the 14 different marketplaces you can choose from and I set my targets. The menus are listed outside so you can see what they have to offer. Once the marketplaces open lines start to form so it’s good to have a game plan.

One of the first things you should do is pick up a passport. Your passport will list all the marketplaces, where to find them, and the menus. You bring your passport to every stop and get stamped when you purchase. It’s a really fun way to keep track of your eating destinations! Reading through the passport I was blown away by the options! Avocado & Peer Jack Petite Guacamole Burger, Fried Artichoke Carbonara, Strawberry Frose, are just to name a few. It was hard to decide where to begin but I had a few good ideas…

My first stop was Eat Your Greens. I ordered the Grilled Asparagus Caesar salad and paired it with a LOLEA Sparkling Frizzante Sangria. The salad was delicious and a fun play on the traditional caesar. It was a great appetizer to start the day. The Frizzante came served with fresh blackberries! If you like sweet and sparkling then this drink is the one for you.

My next stop was Food at Citrus Grove. I ordered both the citrus brined pork roast with lemon pepper slaw and the crispy orange chicken and rice. Both were bursting with flavor and should not be missed. The portions are great for sharing between two.

After lunch the kids wanted to see Disney Junior Live which means waiting in line. Normally, waiting in line is not too enjoyable but it’s a different story during the Food & Wine festival. Waiting in line is the perfect time to pick up a flight of wine at Uncork California! You can decide between a red or white flight. I went with the white wine flight featuring wines from Napa, Santa Maria, and Monterey. The wine flight comes in a portable tray carrier with the wines listed on a business card so you know which one you are trying. Each wine had totally unique and different flavors. It was a great assortment and I have my eyes on the red wine flight for next time.

After a ride on Toy Story Mania it was time for my last stop, Off the Cob. The Shrimp Boil Tacos with sausage and corn were really speaking to me. I’m so glad I stopped here because this was by far my favorite tasting. The flavors were incredible and spicy. Genius move to put sausage in a taco, plus the shrimp were big and meaty. I was completely impressed.

Overall, I was really impressed with the quality of food at the Food & Wine festival. I can’t wait to go back to try more and it is something I will plan on doing every year. Here are a couple of tips I have:
Don’t judge a marketplace by the lines. There are kiosks that have been featured for years at the festival as well as new ones and both are equally delicious. I had my eyes, and nose, set on the Garlic Kissed kiosk but the line was insane! That’s when I decided to stop at Off the Cob, with a much shorter line, where I ended up finding my favorite dish from the entire festival.
I would also plan on doing the festival in a span of 2 days. There is so much to try and if you want to enjoy other park offerings like rides as well, two days would be perfect.

Make sure you pick up passports for your kids too. They will have fun trying new things or simply just getting stamped.
Lastly, don’t forget to enjoy the live demonstrations and music. It truly is a fun and magical time, but hey, isn’t that what Disney does best?!

Authorized Disney Vacation Planner
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Univeral Orlando Authorized Travel Planner
FTAF Selected Travel Advisor
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Mark Travel

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