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Category: Disney Travel

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5 Disney Things You Should Know This Week – April 1, 2016

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Each Friday, I provide 5 Disney things all Disney fans should know from this past week, just in case you missed them. Here are the super important Disney news items for this week:

New Disney Lego Minifigurines

Disney LEGO

While it has been very strange that this has not happened years ago, Disney and LEGO have finally announced they are producing a line of Disney themed LEGO minifigures starting in May, 2106. Prices should start at under $4 for each minifigure. They will be available for sale at World of Disney as well as the LEGO store in Disney Springs (and most likely Downtown Disney at Disneyland), as well as some other, yet to be announce, retailers. Hopefully they will be available online as well.

Disney LEGO Minifigures

Sounds Like Summer Concert Series

sounds like summer epcot

Each year, Epcot offers great concert series, including during the Flower and Garden and Food and Wine Festival. One of the best is the Sounds Like Summer concert series, which feature cover bands of your favorite rock groups. Three new acts have been added this year!

2016 Sounds Like Summer Concert Series

Tiffin Details

animal kingdom Tiffin

More details have been released about Tiffin, the new restaurant that will be opening this year in Animal Kingdom.

“Tiffins is the signature restaurant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, celebrating the culture of design and research that went into creating this unique park,” said Emily O’Brien, Walt Disney Imagineering executive show producer for Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The galleries, or dining rooms, focus on Asia [Trek Gallery with 74 seats] and Africa [Safari Gallery with 64 seats], and the third [Grand Gallery with 114 seats] pays homage to animal species that the Disney Conservation Fund works to protect.

It looks like more information on food and the opening date will be given soon.

Animal Kingdom’s Tiffin Restaurant 

Disney California Adventure Food and Wine Festival

california food wine festival

The Disney California Adventure Food and Wine festival opens today, and runs through May 1, 2016. While not the West Coast equivalent of Epcot’s festival, Disney still offers great food booths and events for Disney guests.

Aulani Free Transportation

Aulani

Thinking about going to Aulani this Summer? Who wouldn’t love that? If so, you can get free airport transfers plus a one day free car rental!

For a limited time, you can receive free round-trip transportation from the airport to Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa, plus a free 1-day mid-size Alamo car rental, when they book your stay of 4 consecutive nights or longer at Aulani through Walt Disney Travel Company.

This special offer is available for select stays June 14 – August 15, 2016. Book now through June 2, 2016.

Did I miss any Disney news this week that should have been included?

Disney MagicBands

MagicBands

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In early 2013, Walt Disney World introduced MyMagic+, a complete overhaul of their entire system, which covered everything from hotel and dining reservations to fast passes. As part of this new system, Walt Disney World introduced MagicBands, which would be the central point of guest interaction with everything at Disney World.

MagicBands, are just that, Magic. They are a simple wrist band that you wear during your stay at Disney World. The wrist bands feature RFID technology, which allows Disney to interact with you in new and unique ways, many of which we have yet to see several years after this project rolled out.

What do MagicBands do?

Check out all the current and rumored things that MagicBands do:

  • MagicBands are your room key for all Walt Disney World Resort rooms. Just tap your MagicBand on the pad on your door and it opens.
  • MagicBands are your park passes for all four Walt Disney World theme parks, as well as the water parks and any other areas of Walt Disney World that require admission.
  • MagicBands are your fast passes for all rides and attractions. Fast passes reservations are now made online in advance of your vacation, or from kiosks in the theme parks, which are then stored on your MagicBands.
  • For Walt Disney World Resort guests who have added a credit card to their reservation, MagicBands are your charge card while in the theme parks and resorts, as well as at most Disney Springs shops and restaurants. Just tap your band and your charge is added to your room charges.
  • MagicBands keep track of you Disney photos in the parks. Not only when you stop to have a Disney photographer take your photo, but also in-ride photos are attached to your account, many automatically are added as you ride the rides.
  • While not currently in place, the next stop for MagicBands will be proximity usage. Imagine walking up to see Anna and Elsa, and they already know your daughter’s name because of her MagicBand, and they greet her by name. Magic!

Who gets MagicBands?

  • All Walt Disney Resorts guests who have booked a Magic Your Way Package that includes your Walt Disney World Resort and theme park passes receive one MagicBand per person for free.
  • Walt Disney World annual passholders receive a MagicBand for free, you just need to link your annual pass to your Disney profile online and customize your MagicBand.
  • Any Walt Disney World Guest can purchase a MagicBand either online or in the theme parks and have your current and future Disney passes linked to the MagicBand. More on this option below.

MagicBands

What are my MagicBand options?

  • If you book a Magic Your Way package or are an annual passholder, you customize your MagicBands online. You are limited to the solid colors they currently offer: Gray, Purple, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue or Pink. You can pick a different color for each person in your family, plus you will be able to customize it with your preferred name, which will be printed on the back of the band.
  • If you happen to book a package for this Summer with the current Awaken Summer discount, you will be given the option to choose a special BB-8 Star Wars themed MagicBand too in addition the solid color ones.
  • Please note, if you book a Magic Your Way Package and DO NOT customize your MagicBands online, you will be given a Gray MagicBand for each person in your party at check in. BORING! Do not forget to customize your bands.
  • Anyone can purchase a MagicBand online, at a Disney Store or in the Walt Disney Worth theme parks. Disney sells the boring solid colors ones online and in the parks for about $13. They also sell many themed MagicBands, which run about $23, though there are a few that are $28 for some reason. These themed ones feature just about everything from Mickey and other Disney characters to Star Wars and Zootopia characters. My favorite is the Orange Bird MagicBand, I wear it every trip! Once purchased, you can link your existing ticket to this new MagicBand, whether it is linked to one already or not.
  • Disney also sells little sets of “pins” called MagicBandits. Just pop them into the holes on your MagicBands to add some class. You can choose from a bunch of different Disney characters or jeweled Mickey heads. Also, Disney sells themed “sliders” that go on your bands to change them a bit too.
  • Of course, if you have a boring colored one, and don’t feel like spending an additional $23 on each person in your family, you can always customize your MagicBands for just a few dollars. Just search Pinterest or other sites for idea. I have personally purchased MagicBand stickers from My Fantasy Bands online, they work great, are cheap, and everyone in my family got a unique MagicBand for a fraction of the price.
  • Currently, MagicBands are only used at Walt Disney World, and do not work anywhere at Disneyland. Rumor has it that MagicBand will be launched at Disneyland at some point in the near future.

It will be interesting as time goes one to see what Disney adds to the MagicBand capabilities.

disney attitude

Your Disney Attitude

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As a Disney travel agent, I meet all sorts of clients. Many go to Disney every year on vacation, some even several times a year, others are headed for their first visit. Some travel in large family groups, others travel alone. No two clients are ever the same. What often sticks out is their Disney attitude. When you tell a child they are going to Disney, they are full of excitement and wonder, you can see it plain as day. But for some reason with many adults, it just doesn’t work that way. I don’t know if it is the stress of trying to create the perfect vacation for your family, the money that you have to spend to experience Disney or something else entirely, but for some, a Disney vacation ends up being more about work than vacation.

Maybe we need to step back for a minute from our planning calendars and decide exactly what we want to get out of our next Disney vacation. My parents used to take me to Disneyland nearly every year for Summer vacation. I never remember the days where my mom planned every minute perfectly so we were able to ride the maximum number of rides and see all the parades. I do remember the day when it poured all day and we just decided to “go for it”. I remember the day my brother Matt was lost for 10 hours and we looked for him while he was riding the rides. I remember my parents letting me stay at Disneyland with my sister until after midnight when I was about 12.

While you are planning your next Disney vacation, remember that your kids are not going to remember everything that you tried to squeeze into the day, but they are going to remember the fun you had together.

Think back to the time when Walt was planning Disneyland.

The idea for Disneyland came about when my daughters were very young and Saturday was always Daddy’s day with the two daughters. So we’d start out and try to go someplace, you know, different things, and I’d take them to the merry-go-round and I took them different places and as I’d sit while they rode the merry-go-round and did all these things – sit on a bench, you know, eating peanuts – I felt that there should be something built where the parents and the children could have fun together. So that’s how Disneyland started. Well, it took many years… it was a period of maybe fifteen years developing. I started with many ideas, threw them away, started all over again. And eventually it evolved into what you see today at Disneyland. But it all started from a daddy with two daughters wondering where he could take them where he could have a little fun with them, too. – Walt Disney

disney park bench
The actual park bench from the Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round in Los Angeles, where Walt Disney first dreamed of Disneyland.

A place where the parents and children could have fun together. Think of your last Disney vacation, when you were stressing over your daily Disney agenda, were you having fun? Were your kids?

The idea of Disneyland is a simple one. It will be a place for people to find happiness and knowledge. It will be a place for parents and children to share pleasant times in one another’s company; a place for teachers and pupils to discover greater ways of understanding and education. Here the older generation can recapture the nostalgia of days gone by, and the younger generation can savor the challenge of the future. – Walt Disney

Maybe a bit of that happiness and knowledge can also come from a bit of spontaneity. While Disney does require some planning considering fast passes, dining reservations, show times, etc., much of the day can be left open to “chance”. I have discovered we have the best Disney trips when I leave much of the planning up to my kids. I let them choose our fast passes, which parades and shows they want to see, where they want to make dining reservations, and then when we are in the parks, I let them decide where we are going, which rides to ride, where you eat lunch, etc. It makes for a much less stressful vacation on my part, and my kids have a blast.

To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here, age relives fond memories of the past… and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America… with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world. – Walt Disney

disneyland sign
The Disney theme parks are supposed to let us escape the “real” world and enjoy a world of fantasy. Let’s all take a step back from our obsessive Disney planning, our insistence that our families follow our Disney agenda regardless of what they want to do or what is going on around them, and enjoy our time in these fantastic places with our family and friends.