Introducing Twitterscursions!

This is an idea I wanted to do for a while and now finally have the resources to do it!

A Twitterscursion (Twitter Excursion) is going to be a trip to the parks planned entirely by what is tweeted/messaged in to me. I wanted to bring as much of the Disney parks as I can back to the people who are home and are not able to be there, so I thought this would be a great way to do it! Just another way to spread the Disney magic!

I will name the park I am going to that day and what I do that day will be entirely dictated by what the people of Twitter would like to see. I will take pictures, video tape and even Ustream what I do that day, to the extent of what technology will allow me to do (aka, chances are I will not be able to broadcast from inside Pirates, but I will sure try!).

For my first ever Twitterscursion, I will be heading to Magic Kingdom. I mean, where else would be a good place to try something like this out than the first park?? This Tuesday (April 10th) I fly in to WDW and will get to the Magic Kingdom around 12 EDT. I will probably be hungry, so I need suggestions on where you would like your "food porn" from. After that, its all you! What attractions and shows would you like to see? What pictures do you want me to take? You can send me suggestions in advance and I will save them in a list to make sure I take them. You can send them to me that day and I will get to as many as I possibly can.

If this goes well, I will try to another Twitterscursion before I come back on Sunday.  Stand by on my twitter (twitter.com/lady_aurora) for all of the information.

If you are in the park and want to join me on this Twitterscursion, let me know! Just be prepared, I am not planning this adventure, our friends at home are!

How Disney Married Us...Unofficially

Had to throw that unofficially in there before I gave anyone a heart attack.  No, Chris and I are not engaged or married, unless you ask a couple Magic Kingdom cast members who seem to think otherwise. 

It all began right before our trip; my cousin is getting married and was thinking about going to Walt Disney World for her honeymoon.  She wanted me to pick up some information for her while I was there, if there was any.  I didn’t mind at all, but I was not sure where to look.  The couple times I went to Franck’s it was closed and when I asked at the concierge at Wilderness Lodge, all they did was hand me a piece of paper that basically said “Call this number”. So Chris and I thought that maybe the City Hall in Magic Kingdom would be a good place to check.

We walked into Magic Kingdom one night after our dinner at Ohana’s and walked over to City Hall.  After waiting a minute or so, a woman came up to us and asked what we needed.  I asked “Do you have any information on honeymoons?”, what I thought to be a simple, non-implied question.  She thinks for a second and says she is not sure, goes behind the desk and calls us up to it.  She asks how long we would be still in the parks to which we replied just one more day, as it was near the end of our trip. She looks through a few things and speaks with her fellow cast member standing next to her, though we cannot hear what they are saying until he says “Can you do that?” and she replies “I don’t know, but I am going to try” and walks to the back room.

The male cast member behind the desk makes small talk with Chris and I, asking if we have seen the Main Street Electrical Parade or Fantasmic yet, to which we replied that we had seen everything expect Fantasmic, which we were seeing tomorrow, on our last day.  

The woman walks back and forth a few more times between the back room and then comes out to us, saying that she cannot get ahold of the manager at Hollywood Studios, so we would have to do this the long way.  She has me fill out a slip with my name, address and phone number on it and then begins plugging things into the computer. Up to this point, Chris and I thought she was merely arranging for us to pick up information at the studios tomorrow. 

The cast member then pulls out a booklet and begins writing on a carbon copied sheet, rips out two of them and hands us these yellow slips of paper. “This one is for a free ice cream for each of you and this one is for a free soda or water, both to be used in the Magic Kingdom tonight” she says and we, through shocked faces, thanked her very much for them.  I did not know what this had to do with my question, Chris and I assumed they were giving this to us because we stumped them with a question and they had no information on honeymoons. She then pulls out this other slip of paper; “If you guys take this number to Guest Relations tomorrow at Hollywood Studios, they will give you free Fast Passes for rides of your choice”.  Chris and I were in full shock now! We thanked her very much and realized we must have really stumped her…until her next statement…

“We don’t have any information on honeymoons, but we love helping you guys out” and with this, she pulled out two “Just Married” pins and handed them to us.

……………..

Yea, that’s about all we could say….we must have stared at her for a good five seconds…What made her assume that we were married? All I asked for was honeymoon information, if I was on my honeymoon, why would I need the information?? 

We took the pins, thanked her again and walked out onto Main Street.  Chris could barely contain his laughter! He turns to me and explains that she must have thought we wanted information on what we could do during our honeymoon now or if there was any special things for honeymooners to do. 

So that is how Chris and I got unofficially married by Disney.  In the end, it is a good tip for those who are on their honeymoon; Get those “Just Married” pins, they will get you sooo much free stuff! No, we did not wear the pins, we did not feel it was right to lie to people like that, but you can guarantee that when we do get married someday, we will have those pins for sure!

Counting to the Magic: 28 Days

Since the invention of the Park Hopper Pass, is it very normal for people to be in two, possibly even three parks in one day.  While this has given lots more options for your trip to Walt Disney World, I do miss the days like my first vacation, spending the entire day just exploring all there is to be seen in one park.  Well, on this vacation, we are going back to basics for one day and spending the entire day, from rope drop to EMH close, in Magic Kingdom!! After a very early breakfast at Kona Cafe, Chris and I are gonna head over to Magic Kingdom, hopefully to see the rope drop and then spend the entire day in the park, snacking, riding, watching and just overall having fun!! It will be even more awesome since the park does not close until 2am! That will be about 17 hours in Magic Kingdom!

Was not sure what kind of cool extra to attach to this post, so how about a couple pictures:

This picture is from our first trip to WDW in 2002, the afternoon of our first day! I was actually taller than my sister!

This is from last June on Chris' birthday, Magic Kingdom was open til 3am! We still look a little wet after our midnight run down Splash Mountain

Counting to the Magic: 45 Days

On Today's countdown, my excitement is focused on not sleeping! Before you take me to the doctor to get my head examined, let me explain.  One thing I love to do in Magic Kingdom is stay til close, and this is even more fun when the park doesn't close until 2 or 3 in the morning! Magic Kingdom is so peaceful that late at night, it's so much fun and I can't wait to be there again!

Here are a few pictures that Chris and I took when we stayed until 3 in the morning!

Buzz Lightyear all closed up at 3 am

Empty castle as we walked out of the park

Haunted Mansion

Me hiding in Dumbo

The steamboat looks abandoned

I love this shot that Chris took

Walking out of Tomorrowland at 3 am

Tip for Today: Walking Straight in Magic Kingdom

Today on Cosmic Reid's All Request Cafe, I give a tip about how to make the most out of the morning in Magic Kingdom, especially when you have little ones!

After Rope Drop in Magic Kingdom, a majority of the crowd goes left or right, towards the large attractions.  I say, be different and go straight! Not only do you get to walk through the castle, which is not available later on during the day when there are shows going on, but you also go to Fantasyland where there are minimal crowds this time of day.  When my family and I went, we walked onto Peter Pan and had a small, 5 minute wait for Dumbo! It really is a great time saver!

Here are some pictures that I took when we took this route on our last trip:

Interactive Queue Ideas: Magic Kingdom

In the last few days, pictures have started to surface of the new Interactive Queue at Walt Disney World's Haunted Mansion and WOW does it look cool!! They have kept the theme to it and yet they have made it fun for everyone! I am really liking these photos that are being posted and am so excited to try this in July!

I have noticed that Interactive Queues are becoming steadily more popular in the parks and people are really enjoying them! We have Soarin, Space Mountain, Winnie the Pooh, and now Haunted Mansion, with Dumbo in the future! These rides all needed this update and they have even made the ride experience more enjoyable! People don't use the fast passes as much anymore because they would rather go through the awesome queues and explore!

This got me thinking.....What other rides could use an interactive queue?  So I have decided to go through the parks and look at each ride and decide what rides would benefit from this experience and maybe even throw out an idea or two!  All of the parks will be covered, but in this post, we are going to just look at Magic Kingdom.

The old Skyway building

Peter Pan's Flight- PLEASE!!!!!! I mean, the ride is cute and all, but the line is RIDICULOUS!!! They need something in that queue to make me more motivated to get into that line.  Good news about this is that there has already been talks about this one! According to rumors, there have been permits out for work to be done in that area.  The supposed plan: Expand into the bathroom area next to the ride and make an interactive queue.  The bathrooms will be moved across the path where the stroller parking and old Skyway building currently are.

Pirates of the Caribbean - When this question was posed on twitter, this was a very popular answer, and I agree to an extent.  I believe there are some great interactive things that could be added to this queue, such as an interactive cannon that makes noise like the cannon went off when you pull the string.  I also believe that the queue has some unique parts that should not be tampered with, such as the stalemate chess game in the dungeons.  As long as they are careful with this one, I do think an interactive experience could be beneficial.

Jungle Cruise - I am saying no to this one and I will tell you why; the theming in this queue is already so vast and there are so many hidden gems such as the cheezy puns that an interactive queue would take away from all of the visual exploring.  Plus, having tech stuff in that area kind of defeats the idea of it being separate from everything and in its own world, which plays into the theme of the attraction.

Splash Mountain - There is so much space here and so many fun things they could do!! Create a bog scene, have jumping fountains and animals popping out of holes! This could be such a huge playground, let your imagination go wild!

Big Thunder Mountain - I go cross-eyed in this place with all of the switchbacks! This queue needs something, anything really!! I would like it to tell some of the story of Big Thunder, not too many people know the story behind this attraction and it deserves to be told in some fashion! (If you want to find out about Big Thunder, check out Issue 8 of Celebrations Magazine, it was the featured attraction)

it's a small world - for interactive fun for this ride's queue, put touch screens along the switchbacks that tell short fun facts about different countries around the world and what children do in those countries.  It could be a precursor to what is inside the attraction and help kids understand more of what they see during their ride.

Tomorrowland Indy Speedway - This is a long, hot wait and it needs some kind of boost! For race fans, screens with car facts may be good, but that is not something everyone will want to flock to.  Some kind of interactive race game would be fun, a game that allowed competitive play between people in the queue, similar to the Space Mountain queue. 

Astro Orbiter - This line is long even at 2:30 in the morning! (Chris and I can vouch for that!) It is quite a boring line too, I am not sure what could be done for this line, but it could really benefit from something!

Taken in the queue cuz I was SO bored!

 

 

That is my list for Magic Kingdom.  If you agree or disagree with my suggestions, leave a comment and let me know! If you have any ideas of your own, I would love to hear from you also!  In the next post, we will take a look at Hollywood Studios Queues.

Weekly DDL Post

This week on The Disney Driven Life, I talk about a new cuddly friend that arrived in Epcot this past week and some interesting construction walls in the Magic Kingdom.  To read this article, just Click Here and visit www.TheDisneyDrivenLife.com to read all of the other great articles on the site!

Weekly DDL Post

This week on the Disney Driven Life, I talk about two changes that are coming to Magic Kingdom, including a new character meet and greet area! To find out more, check out the article here!