Epcot Flower & Garden Festival Kicks Off This Week

This week the Epcot International Flower Garden Festival officially opens.  It’s one of Epcot’s longest events, in the length of time it’s going on at the park.  So from year to year it might not seem like a lot changes.  This year, though, it’s got something special up its sleeve. One of Disney’s big films of the year is “Oz: The Great & Powerful,” which tells the story of how a man from the American Midwest became the wonderful, terrible Wizard of Oz.  It opens on March 8, two days after the kickoff of the Flower & Garden Festival, and … Continue reading

Couple Visits Disneyland Every Day in 2012

At the end of 2012 I came across an interesting post on the official Disney Parks blog: a couple visited Disneyland every single day in 2012.  On December 31, Jeff Reitz and Tonya Mickesh received special gifts personally from Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Tom Staggs.  It was a typical fancy Disney ceremony: as the two made their way down Main Street, Staggs was waiting for them to present their honors in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle. Their honors included being made honorary citizens of Disneyland, and a stay in the Disneyland Dream Suite, a luxury apartment off the … Continue reading

Adventures at Disney World

Your family is desperate for a Disney World vacation. They’ve been begging you to go for ages, but you just can’t get into the idea. Amusement parks aren’t your thing. Sure, there’s stuff like the Animal Kingdom and special events at Epcot, but even on an off-season Disney might just be too crowded for you. You’re the outdoorsy type, you love adventure. In fact, Adventures by Disney would be more your speed, but that’s way too expensive. You’re in luck, because a little-known fact about Disney World is that there’s tons to do there that one wouldn’t associate with amusement … Continue reading

Walt Disney’s Wonderland

“Alice in Wonderland” is that rare Disney movie for which the source text is more beloved than the animated adaptation. Today I’m only looking at the 1951 Walt-Disney-overseen animated adaptation of the famous stories by Lewis Carroll, not Tim Burton’s recent live action film; perhaps I’ll return to that another day. Disney did something interesting with this film: it’s an adaptation of both “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass.” Bringing both stories to the screen is possible because, well, both are just the tales of Alice’s many adventures in Wonderland. Neither have a specific plot; Alice falls … Continue reading

Summer Disney World Deals

It may only just be April, and around here at least our weather finally started feeling spring-like again after some unseasonably warm temperatures, but it’s time to start thinking about summer. At least, it’s time to focus on summer if you’re thinking about planning a Walt Disney World trip for your upcoming vacation. The special offers on Disneyland’s website still pertain to their spring deals, but Disney World has started looking ahead to the warmer months. Today I’ll focus exclusively on the Disney World deals, and I’ll return to Disneyland in the future when their special offers site is updated. … Continue reading

Indulge Your Messy Side with Goofy’s Paint ‘n’ Play

Although I desperately want to visit a Disney park, I’m really only interested in attending the domestic ones. I know I’d have a great time at Hong Kong Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, or Tokyo Disneyland, but if I manage to travel in either China, France, or Japan, I’m not going to spend my time at an amusement park. There are far too many other more unique places to visit in each of those countries. Sometimes a story comes along, however, that makes me wish for a second that I could visit an international Disney park. Today I encountered one of those … Continue reading

What Is the Disney Mom’s Panel?

Over my past 2.5 years as a Disney blogger I’ve frequently seen reference to the Disney Moms Panel. Each time I learned about it I was in the middle of researching for a different article, so even though I always meant to visit it someday it took me a long time to actually get around to it. But finally I’m here to answer: what is the Moms Panel? Just going by name alone I imagine the Moms Panel as a group of Disney-loving mothers ready to answer questions, likely posed by other moms, or at least parents, about Walt Disney … Continue reading

Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival 2012

Disney fans have one big sign for the coming of spring, and it has nothing to do with a certain ceremonial groundhog. Nope, it’s something much more floral. Once the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival has kicked off, we know that spring is coming. Of course this is a bit of a cheat; as I said last year, the festival takes place in Orlando. That means it’s nice and warm for them year round. Oh, I know that some Orlando residents complain of the chilly 50-degree weather they sometimes get in the winter, but the rest of us living … Continue reading