These have been a hot item each month. Here are the bands currently available for the upgrade.
Current bands include an adorable new Chef Mickey MagicBand for Epcot Food & Wine 2019, a Genie MagicBand, and even the latest Figment band to hit the shelves. Do note that all of these in this row are currently priced at a discounted $10.00, except for the Food & Wine band.
Remember the story of the 6 year old who gave up his Disney money to help hurricane evacuees, if not check it out here:
On Sunday, Sept. 8, Jermaine celebrated his seventh birthday, when Mickey Mouse and a group of Walt Disney World cast members made a surprise visit to tell Jermaine that he and his family are going to Walt Disney World Resort after all. The family will enjoy a VIP getaway at the vacation kingdom later this month.
Check out the video below to watch the surprise visit:
Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is without a doubt one reason to visit the Magic Kingdom over the Christmas holiday. With Magic Kingdom decked out, cookies and cocoa, and some great holiday entertainment, it is an incredibly special experience that is not to be missed. Now, party guests have something new to start counting down to, a brand new Christmas fireworks show.
From a current Disney cast member;
“Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks show, hosted by the one-and-only Minnie Mouse, will celebrate the magic of Christmas with medleys of beloved holiday songs, from “Joy to the World” and “Deck the Halls” to “Up on the House Top” and “We Wish You A Merry Christmas.” The holiday music will evoke heartfelt moments of home and family, as well as the festive fun of the season before an incredible finale you won’t want to miss.
You’ll be able to see the fireworks show during Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party on select nights November 8 – December 22, 2019. And if you are looking for an extra magical way to celebrate the brand new show in its first year, our fireworks dessert parties are the perfect option! You can add on this experience to enjoy treats, including chocolate-dipped strawberries, cupcakes, ice cream, seasonal fruits, cheeses and other festive favorites while taking advantage of dedicated, dazzling views of the show.
Along with our new show, each of this year’s 23 nights of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party will feature performances of Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade, A Totally Tomorrowland Christmas and Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration stage show. And during A Frozen Holiday Wish stage show, Queen Elsa will magically transform Cinderella Castle with glistening ice.
During Party nights, you can also experience select rides and attractions (including the “Jingle Cruise”), savor complimentary treats, discover event-exclusive merchandise, delight to a magical “snowfall” on Main Street, U.S.A., and more.”
Get your tickets to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and enjoy this fireworks show this upcoming holiday season.
Just how did Walt Disney develop a passion that would later change the world of entertainment
There have been companies show up on the main stage and flourish for awhile, but then, it seems, we see them die out or simply be surpassed by the competition. We see that they have had a great idea or product and that great idea/product pushes the company into rarified air only to watch the competitors come up with a better idea/product. We see companies all of the time, who are led by a charismatic visionary, but then, when that leader leaves, they falter under new leadership.
So how is the Walt Disney Company different than almost any other company in the history of business? Or is it?
This question has to be answered by going back to its origins. Into the mind of one man from Chicago, Illinois.
Walter Elias Disney, born in 1901 to Elias and Flora Disney, was the 4th son of 5 children. At an early age, he developed a passion for art and used it as a medium to show his creativity. He took art classes as a boy and when his family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1911, he met Walter Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer’s family introduced Walt to the world of vaudeville and motion pictures.
During his time in Missouri, Walt attended weekend classes at the Kansas City Art Institute as well as a course in cartooning.
A Young Walt Disney
Elias moved his family back to Chicago in 1917, where Walt became the cartoonist for the high school newspaper. He continued his schooling be art schooling by attending the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.
Walt would draw patriotic pictures of World War I for the school newspaper, inspiring him to attempt to enroll in the U.S. Army. After being rejected for being too young, Walt forged the date of birth on his birth certificate and joined the Red Cross.
While serving as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross, he would paint cartoons on the side of his ambulance and had some of his pictures published in the army newspaper, Stars and Stripes.
At the age of 18, Walt returned to Kansas City where he got a job as a commercial illustrator at the Pesman-Rubin Commercial Art Studio. While drawing pictures for advertising, theater programs and catalogs, Walt met a man who, later, would help him change the entertainment industry…Ub Iwerks.
In 1920, Disney began to became interested in animation. With the help of a borrowed book on animation and a camera, he started experimenting at home.
Disney and Iwerks started a small studio of their own in 1922 and acquired a secondhand movie camera with which they made one and two-minute animated advertising films for distribution to local movie theaters. They also did a series of animated cartoon sketches called Laugh-O-grams and the pilot film for a series of seven-minute fairy tales that combined both live action and animation, Alice in Cartoonland.
A New York film distributor cheated the young producers, and Disney was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1923.
He moved to California to pursue a career as a cinematographer, but the surprise success of the first Alice film compelled Disney and his brother Roy—a lifelong business partner—to reopen shop in Hollywood.
Walt and Roy Disney
They, then, invented a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which was distributed for $1,500 each, and launched their small enterprise.
In 1927, just before the transition to sound in motion pictures, Disney and Iwerks experimented with a new character—a cheerful, energetic, and mischievous mouse called Mickey.
Recognizing the possibilities for sound in animated-cartoon films, Disney quickly produced a Mickey Mouse cartoon equipped with voices and music, entitled Steamboat Willie. When it appeared in 1928, Steamboat Willie was a sensation. In the words of one Disney employee, “Ub designed Mickey’s physical appearance, but Walt gave him his soul.”
The growing popularity of Mickey Mouse and his girlfriend, Minnie, however, attested to the public’s taste for the fantasy of little creatures with the speech, skills, and personality traits of human beings. (Disney himself provided the voice for Mickey until 1947.) This popularity led to the invention of other animal characters, such as Donald Duck and the dogs Pluto and Goofy.
In the early 1930s, in the midst of the Great Depression, Disney fully endeared himself and his cartoons to audiences all over the world, and his operation began making money in spite of the hard economic times.
Disney hired the professional composer and arranger Carl Stalling, on whose suggestion the Silly Symphony series was developed, providing stories through the use of music. Also hired at this time were several local artists, some of whom stayed with the company as core animators; the group later became known as the Nine Old Men.
Co-creator of Mickey Mouse, Ub Iwerks left to start Iwerks Studio in 1930.
Color was introduced in the Academy Award-winning Silly Symphonies film Flowers and Trees (1932), while other animal characters came and went in films such as The Grasshopper and the Ants (1934) and The Tortoise and the Hare (1935).
In 1933, Disney produced The Three Little Pigs. The film won Disney another Academy Award in the Short Subject (Cartoon) category. The film’s success led to a further increase in the studio’s staff, which numbered nearly 200 by the end of the year.
Disney realized the importance of telling emotionally gripping stories that would interest the audience, and he invested in a “story department” separate from the animators, with storyboard artists who would detail the plots of Disney’s films.
A passion and creativity had been developed, a company had been formed. From art classes to a full fledged business, Walt Disney never stopped testing the limits of what was possible in animation and entertainment.
These early successes would lead to what would then be deemed to be the golden age of animation…..
Stay tuned for the second part of our series, Creation of an Empire.
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Since going to Disney with our daughter who was 2 at the time, we have always enjoyed going to Character Dining experiences. There is nothing I maybe have enjoyed more than watching my kids get their autograph books out and wait for the next character to come by.
Most of these dining experiences are buffets, so it is important to understand what foods you and your family will enjoy better when making a decision on what experiences to reserve and what meal to attend.
Because of this, most of character experiences that we do attend are breakfast meals. I am not sure I have ever had a bad breakfast at WDW.
When deciding that you are going to reserve a spot at some of these places, having a Disney dining plan is beneficial as some of these meals are a little pricey due to most of them being buffets and the extra benefit of seeing the characters.
There are 15 total character dining destinations that you can chose from. We have experienced 8 of the 15.
For all of these dining experiences, one thing is clear…Bring Your Autograph Books!
Here are our Top Five, in no particular order;
Crystal Palace
Located at the Magic Kingdom just off of Main Street USA, The Crystal Palace resembles England’s Crystal Palace, which was erected in Hyde Park. The restaurant’s white steel supports, arched ceilings, and glass roof (especially the atrium) are tributes to its namesake, built to house London’s 1851 Great Exhibition—the first world’s fair—and among the first structures to use plate glass in large quantities.
Crystal Palace
Serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, Crystal Palace offers some of the best buffet food on property. It’s a great place to start your day in the Magic Kingdom or close out a wonderful day of rides and fun. While we normally eat here for Breakfast, the dinner here is also really good.
The food is consistently good, but eating seems secondary to the desire to get lots of photos with Pooh and his pals. If you time dinner right and can snag a table away from like-minded diners, there is a great view of Main Street parades in the conservatory.
Breakfast prices are average for WDW standards, breakfast is cheaper to visit if you do not have a Disney Dining Plan (DDP).
Who to Meet:
Winnie the Pooh
Tigger
Piglet
Eeyore
Tusker House
Tusker House is located in Animal Kingdom inside the Harambe Village square— is plainer than Disney’s promotional photos would indicate, especially after dark. The food is surprisingly good, with spices and taste combinations you won’t find at other spots.
Tusker House
This buffet style meal is inspired by African and Indian dishes with the classic American dishes as well.
One of the highlights of the meal is the Jungle Juice that is served. It is a mixture of orange juice, guava juice, and passionfruit juice. It is one of those things that you either love it of hate it, I think it’s really good.
The food is priced very reasonable for the quality
Who to Meet: (all dressed in expedition gear)
Mickey Mouse
Goofy
Donald Duck
Daisy
Chef Mickey’s
Chef Mickey’s is located at the Contemporary Resort in an open air restaurant. The food take a back seat to the atmosphere that is created by the characters and the resort. Before you are even seated, a picture with the Chef Mickey statue is a must.
Chef Mickey’s
In all of our experiences at Chef Mickey’s, the place has been a zoo, but that’s absolutely to be expected of a restaurant like this. Kids get excited, parents let them run around…it happens. Don’t eat here if you’re not keen on the idea of someone else’s rugrat jumping around your table.
The food is pricier than most on this list but the experience is well worth it.
The food is all American comfort food. While this is not the most exciting, the food tastes really good too. Anyone can find something to eat on this buffet.
The layout of the restaurant and the whole resort level creates a loud, busy experience. The monorail can be heard whirring into the resort overhead.
This is a must visit for every WDW trip.
Who to Meet: (all in chef attire)
Mickey Mouse
Minnie Mouse
Donald Duck
Goofy
Pluto
1900 Park Fare
This restaurant, located at the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa that has 2 separate character meals. The Supercalifragilistic Breakfast and the Cinderella’s Happily Ever After Dinner gives you a chance to meet some characters that it is tough to find elsewhere.
This is another one of those dining experiences where the atmosphere overshadows the food and decor. The characters play their part fantastically from the Mad Hatter to Cinderella’s Stepsisters. The interaction that you can have with the characters is much more personal due to them actually being allowed to talk to you.
The food is much better at breakfast than dinner but still a solid buffet. It is also reasonably priced for being in an extravagant hotel like the Grand Floridian.
Who to Meet:
Breakfast
Mary Poppins
Alice (Alice in Wonderland)
Mad Hatter
Winnie the Pooh
Tigger
Dinner
Cinderella
Prince Charming
Lady Tremaine
Anastasia
Drisella
Cinderella’s Royal Table
The only character dining experience on this list that is not a buffet, this is located in Cinderella’s Castle at Magic Kingdom.
Cinderella’s Castle
Although the food is decent, this experience is all about the nostalgia.
The atmosphere is all castle and royalty. When you are allowed in, the initial picture with Cinderella feels like you are in a real life castle. Once the photo session is complete, you are called upstairs to your table.
If you don’t take the elevator, the winding staircase up to the dining hall just adds to the castle like feel.
Once at your table, all “princes” are given swords and all “princesses” are given fairy wands
Music introduces each Princess and they begin to make their rounds to each table. One of my favorite Disney memories was when our daughter was 2 and we experienced this for the first time on Christmas morning. All of the Disney Princesses took time with our daughter and you could tell she loved the experience.
This meal is probably pricey but it is so worth it if you have little kids or simply love nostalgia.
