2013 Holiday Trip

On this trip, we got to test out the Magic Bands and tested the My Disney Experience extensively for the first time. So here are some thoughts on that process.

1. The Magic Bands are very convenient. No more fumbling with trying to get the key card out, or our admission tickets. I see people not understanding exactly what to do when they're about to enter the park with the Magic Bands, especially if they are using the finger for their biometric identifier on the same hand that has the Magic Band (i.e. when can you move your Magic Band away and then scan your finger. When that happens, the line can slow down.

2. The Magic Bands also made visiting other resorts a lot more convenient. It used to be that one has to show drivers license or some form of ID. Now, all they do is scan the Magic Band.

3. I am of two minds with regards to the FastPass Plus. On one hand, I can see how it is convenient to try and get fastpasses even before one gets to the park, sometime days ahead of time. On the other hand, if you hated the idea of fastpasses before, you'd hate fastpass plus even more. It certainly contributed to even longer/slower standby lines. And the fastpasses also seem to run out quicker for the most popular attractions, especially Toy Story Mania.

4. The fastpass system needs a bit more improvement. In my opinion, the use of the Magic Band actually slowed the fastpass line. I seldom see LINES trying to get into the fastpass line, but now, I'm seeing them rather frequently. At the Kilimanjaro Safari, for example, there is a roped queue line just to get into the fastpass line! Why is this happening? It used to be that it took very little time for a cast member to simply look at one's fastpass ticket to know if one has a valid time to get onto an attraction. Now, with the band, one actually has to stop and spend a few seconds getting the Mickey Symbol just right for the darn thing to turn green. I've seen way too many people who took a little bit longer to get this done, and that's enough to slow down the line and cause a backup when there's a lot of people trying to get on it.

5. There was also an inconsistency in who should get scanned. On some attractions, such as the Safari, only one person in the party needs to be scanned. On other rides, everyone going in must be scanned. We got confused on which attraction does what. They need to have just one, uniform policy on this and get it over with. We did mention this to a cast member who manned the My Disney Experience kiosk at downtown Disney, and she has never heard of having only one member of the party that needs to be scanned. She checked with the back office, and came back with news that this was done only for a small number of attractions on a temporary basis, and that soon, all the rides will require everyone to get scanned to get into the Fastpass line.

6. If you play Sorcerer of the Magic Kingdom, you can transfer your keycard info to your Magic Band. However, take note that when you do that, your key card will no longer work. You can only use your Magic Band for all your Sorcerer games. This means that if you get another band on your next visit, you must still bring the old band unless you get it transffered to the new band. And if you lose your Magic Band, you lose info of your game and will have to start from scratch unless you still have your old, disabled key card. Presumably, we were told that your old key card can be used to transfer the info to your new band. It gets confusing. We decided that we will keep using the key card and not have it transferred to the Magic Band.

7. You must still bring your Annual Pass card with you if you want to get your Annual Pass discounts. Even though your Magic Band has your annual pass info for you to get into the parks, it doesn't show that information when you scan your band at the cash registers to pay for your merchandise. So you need the Annual Pass card to get your discounts. The same is true for DVC discounts.

8. The My Disney Experience app and interface still need some tweaking. There are things that are just not that easy to find or not very clear on what they meant. Adding "friends" and "family" is one such example. What distinguished between the two and what can and cannot be done between the two is still unclear. Trying to consolidate different accounts of the same person still requires assistance of a My Disney Experience cast member.

9. If Disney expects that people make use of the My Disney Experience app, then it is imperative that the wi-fi at the parks and at the resorts be reliable. This was not the case for us at Epcot and at MK on two different days. The wi-fi kept dropping off almost the entire time we were there. It was very frustrating. They need to be able to support the large bandwidth and the increasing number of users on their network if they continue to push this ahead.

10. There need to be an ability to have push notification for the app so that one can have a mobile device reminding us of an upcoming fastpass time. As it is now, the only way one can check one's fastpass time is by looking at one's "My Plan". There should be an option where the one can have the app send either a text message or a push notification indicating that one's fastpass time is 5 minutes away, or something like that.

11. Please, please, please consider implementing the Magic Band on the Disney Cruise very soon! It will fit exceedingly well in that situation considering that the darn thing is waterproof. So one doesn't need to have to carry a baggie to put one's key card in so as not to get wet when swimming, or have to give it to someone else to look after. It will certainly be a lot more convenient than having one's key card dangling from a lanyard.

Zz.

O' Christmas Tree, O' Christmas Tree....

This is a summary of the various Christmas trees that we saw during out trip.

My favorite has always been the tree at Animal Kingdom. It is definitely unique and the decor fits very well with the theme of that park.

Next, we have the ones at Hollywood Studios.

This one, of course, is from the Osborne lights.

From Epcot, this is the tree at the entrance to World Showcase.

This is a tree in one of the stores at the entrance to World Showcase.

They have this poinsettia tree all over the parks and even in Downtown Disney. I've always referred to it as the Cousin It tree. I mean, look at it!

This is the tree at the American Adventure pavilion.

The final theme park is Magic Kingdom. This is the tree in Town Square.

{Cont. with the resorts....}

{... cont. with the resorts}

This is from Fort Wilderness.

Grand Floridian.

The Boardwalk. This is the tree in the lobby.

And this is the tree in the outside courtyard.

This is from Yacht Club.

This is one of the trees in the lobby of Port Orleans - French Quarter.

The tree in the lobby at Saratoga Springs.

Still at Saratoga Springs, but this is in the bar area of the Turf Club restaurant.

The final resort is my all-time favorite - The Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Finally, these are from Downtown Disney.

Zz.

Pins! We have Pins!

Of course, as pin collectors, we bought quite a number of pins during the trip. There were a few that were released while we were there, so we also had an extensive shopping list from our pin trading friends from back home.

I'll start with the top of the list of the ones that we bought for ourselves. This is the box set that was first released during the first MVMCP. The box set is a Limited Edition (LE) 600. I will say that we were skeptical of there being anymore by the time we got there. There are 6 pins in the box. The first 4 from the left (Mickey, Tigger, Stitch, and C&D) were also released as separate pins of LE 1200. However, the last two (Donald and Goofy) are the completer pins and can only be found in the box set, which means that they are LE 600 only.

There were two Passholder pins that we wanted while we were there, and we got both of them.

This next pin was released during the DVC Merry Mixer. We bought one for our collection, and bought a few more that we know will go quickly at our next pin trading.

Now, most of you know that we collect Donald Duck pins. These next pins required a bit of a hunt. These are the holiday resort pins. There is a pin for each resort. The interesting thing about this is that you can get SOME of the pins at the Pin Trading store at Downtown Disney, but you can't get all of them. The rest, you actually have to go to the resorts themselves to get those pins!

Well, we weren't going to do that, and we were not planning on collecting all the resort holiday pins, but we did want the Donald pins. The Coronado pin was available at the Downtown Disney pin store, but the other two (Saratoga and All Star) were not. Luckily, we were staying at Saratoga Springs, so it didn't take much effort to get that pin. However, we did have to drive to All Star resort to get the last Donald pin.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is sometime what we, pin traders, have to do to hunt for pins.

While we were there, one of the days was Walt's birthday, so we bought the pins released to commemorate Walt's day.

The pin stores were also selling these $75 Disney gift cards that came with limited release pins. There were a total of 4 different designs. We only bought two because I wanted the Mickey and the Donald (of course), but our friends who came along with us bought several of the whole set, since they were going to be spending money anyway. BTW, while we were there, we were told that the complete set of the gift-card pins, even after the gift cards have been used and zeroed out, were selling on e-bay for $40! Holy mackerel!

This is an open edition pin, but I love it. And since I collect The Fab 5 also, it was a no-brainer to get this one.

OK, the next few pins are not something that we bought for ourselves, but rather, for trading. We got a couple of pins of the gingerbread house.

This is a pin from MVMCP.

And finally, many of our friends are C&D collectors, so that's why we bought this.

There are a few more pins that we got for trading, but these are the ones that I found interesting enough to show. We also got quite a few landyard pins off cast members, and many of these were newly released. So those will make good trading as well.

Zz.

Of course, one of the things that we wanted on this trip was the special Sorcerer card released only during MVMCP. This event's card is Donald's nephews, which made it doubly good since we collect them!

I used that card at a couple of portals while battling the villains. It was hysterical, since the villains got pummeled a rain of snowballs!

I hope those of you who attended the event got your cards. If you don't keep them, I will gladly take them off your hands! I now have the past two MVMCP and MNSSHP sorcerer cards. Crossing fingers for next year's.

Zz.

I always like the unexpected, pleasant surprise during any visit. On this visit, I paid closer attention to some of the rides, and got a pleasant surprise on Living With The Land. At several places along the attraction, they had rather cute decorations for the holidays. Here are three of them that I managed to capture.

This is the fish farming tank area.

In the greenhouse, they had a rosemary christmas tree.

A snowman? In a greenhouse? He won't last long. He must not have seen Olaf in Frozen yet.

Zz.

Merry Christmas, everyone! This is the Holiday Tag from Illuminations that we videotaped on this trip.

Zz.

You're welcome.

I've had time to do a bit more video editing. This is the compilation video of our trip.

Zz.

You're welcome. Here's another one. This is our video of the Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade during Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

I uploaded it in HD, so hopefully the picture is a bit clearer. Enjoy!

Zz.

Another video in the pipeline. This one is the Jingle Jungle Parade at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

This parade, and it's regular version, the Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade, are quite underrated by many guests who often missed them when they are at WDW. I find this parade to be the most stunning visually, and it is almost an evolution of what used to be Tapestry of Nations parade at Epcot's World Showcase.

Zz.

When we had our afternoon tea in the Garden View Lounge at the Grand Floridian, we all chose different types of teas. I had the jardeeling, but my spouse had the Mad Tea Party blend. All of us at the table loved it. So it was a surprise when we saw the same loose-leaf tea blend being sold at Mouse Gears, AND, they were on sale if you buy two of them.

So we did!

Had the pleasure of having some this past weekend. I prefer to serve loose-leaf teas in a French press pot. I must say, this is a very good blend, almost as good as the African Autumn blend that I first learned about when I had a pot of tea during dinner at Boma many years ago.

This will also be the case where I will not be throwing away the container after I've emptied it out.

Zz.

I always enjoy the trip more when there are unexpected, pleasant surprises. There were a few on this trip, and this is one of them.

I know about the Port Orleans resort. I've stayed at Port Orleans Riverside back in 2003 (the French Quarter was under renovation at that time). I've also heard good things about the French Quarter from folks on this forum and other forums. So I've always wanted to drop by some time and check it out, but never made it there till this trip. And man, was I pleasantly surprised.

The resort, or at least, the lobby/pool area, was quite charming. It definitely had the New Orleans vibe to it. The lobby was nicely decorated for the holidays, but you still get the New Orleans theme.

Everywhere you look, there are things to see.

... especially in the pool area.

But what impressed me most is the food court area. Here's the thing. I've always complained that, especially for the counter service, the food quantity has gone down considerably, while at the same time, the cost had gone up. I had this disappointment at Sunshine Seasons on this last visit, which was awful because this was one of my most favorite counter service location. So I was completely surprised with not only the food quality, which was good, but also the food quantity for the amount that I paid. This was so unlike Disney where I order only one entree dish and I was completely stuffed by the end of it!

This is the entrance to the food court area called Sassagoula.

I find the decor throughout the food area to be a lot of fun, definitely reflecting the Mardi Gras theme. I love those huge heads hanging from the walls!

I ordered the fried chicken. It came with 2 sides and corn bread. These were huge pieces of chicken equivalent to half a chicken. It was totally worth what I paid for.

And now, let's talk about the beignets. They were good, but they were not what one would get from Cafe Du Monde. Unlike the beignets from Cafe Du Monde, the beignets I got were hollow in the middle and without a distinct, yeasty flavor. I would definitely get it again, but I was so hoping that they have something close to Cafe Du Monde. But I suppose that might be expecting a bit too much. I may just have to make some beignets myself to satisfy my cravings.

On the whole, we all had a very pleasant experience there. All of us said that we definitely will come back for at least an evening to have dinner on our future trips to WDW.

Zz.