walt disney world

Disney Fun From Around the World: Week of October 4, 2010

Nancy Disney Fun From Around the "World" , , 0 Comment

Disney bloggers once again offered up an amazing selection of interesting, fun, informative, and heartwarming blog posts this week. I enjoyed many…and am sharing some of my favorites with you. I hope you enjoy them as well!

Just a quick note also, in case you missed yesterday’s post: starting next week, this weekly Disney Fun From Around the World round-up will come out on Friday instead of Saturday. Just my way of ending the week in a fun way! 🙂

Enjoy and happy reading!

While the folks at Chip and Co are always busy with lots of great articles, these two especially caught my eye. Disney World Quick Tips – Avoiding Photo Disasters was, I thought, especially helpful for anyone who likes to take pictures at Disney World (most of us?). And What are some of your Disneyworld Traditions? truly made me smile, thinking about *our* family traditions. What are yours? 🙂

Speaking of making you smile, this heartwarming post from Disney4Dads will truly make you smile. It brought a tear to my eye as well:  When you wish upon a rock.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article for Chip and Co. about pressed pennies making a great, affordable Disney souvenir. This week, Disney Driven Life offers another great perspective on this: PENNY MATH – DISNEY FROM A KIDS POINT OF VIEW

While Disney Food Blog has, of course, been providing tons of mouthwatering coverage of the Food and Wine Festival, I wanted to focus on something different this week, for those of you who have special food requirements…or know someone who does: Vegan Dining in Disney World. This is must-reading for anyone with special dietary needs.

Chris at Everything Walt Disney World was at Disney World last week, and has been providing us with some great reviews from that trip. In this post, she provides an in-depth discussion of All Star Sports and the Great Toilet Flushes of Doom. (Be prepared for a few giggles in addition to some extremely helpful information…. 🙂  )

I am liking how Disney is finally starting to really embrace technology. Disney Parks Blog shared this week that they are now adding a ‘Near Me’ Search Added to Mobile Dining Reservations at Walt Disney World

Oh Amanda! who is a member of the Disney Mom’s Panel, also just returned from a trip to Disney World and has been blogging about her experiences. These two were especially interesting: Best Disney World Restaurants: Top Ten {Tuesday} provides some very helpful information and Disney World Moms Panel FAILS….is just plain fun. 🙂

Ever been at Disney when it rains? You will appreciate this post from Growing Up Disney: Guest Post: Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Another fun post this week came from Studios Central who discussed How I Know I’m a Disney Freak. (*I* know I am by the number of Hidden Mickeys I tend to find in all sorts of non-Disney places…and how I tend to show them to random non-Disney people…..And don’t judge me, lots of you have probably done this too I bet! 🙂  )

Last…and definitely least…in case you missed it, I am thinking ahead to the Holiday Season at Chip and Co: Affordable Disney Vacations: the Candlelight Processional

Alright everyone, that’s it for this week. Have an amazing, wonderful and magical weekend!

Share

Wordless Wednesday: Musketeer Donald

Nancy Wordless Wednesday , , 0 Comment

I love Donald Duck. Sometimes cranky, misunderstood, in trouble….and the opposite of the seemingly perfect Mickey….Donald actually seems more “real” to me. 🙂 I often think that Donald hates to be compared to Mickey and that is why he is so hard to find at times. But he makes an appearance every now and then, and during Halloween you can find him as Musketeer Donald, a brave and trustworthy hero. Never fear Donald, you may not be perfect, but I love you just the way you are!

Share

Disney Fun From Around the World: Week of Sept. 27, 2010

Nancy Disney Fun From Around the "World" , , 1 Comment

Grab your coffee and put your feet up, it’s time to see what the Disney Blog-World had for us this past week. I loved all these posts and I am sure you will too! 🙂

To start off, in case you missed my profile earlier this week, Bob at Disney Dispatch has a fantastic series on all of the food at the Food and Wine Festival: Country Cuisine Confidential 2010: All You Need to Know About All There Is to Eat and Drink at the Food & Wine Festival. If you have never been to Food and Wine Festival, do yourself a favor and read this before you go!

Bruce from A WORLD VIEW… Enjoying Walt Disney World discusses how Back Stage Tours provide a deeper, more meaningful experience at Walt Disney World – and it’s fun too.

Always sharing great information related to Disney dining, AJ over at the Disney Food Blog offers some important Tips for Picky Eaters in Disney Parks

Disney 4 Dads has a very touching article this week: Everything I Wanted to Know about Life, I Learned at Disney World

Growing Up Disney has lots of great Disney info if you have little ones to plan for. This is part 2 of  a series on *cranky* kids: Minnie Moms: Cranky Kids Part 2

If you haven’t yet seen the great new video series that Chip and Co.and Imaginerding.com have teamed up together on, make sure you find out What’s a Deek? and watch the first installment. Number two will be ready soon!

Chip and Co.also provided some great information in How to prepare your Kids for their First Disney World Vacation as well as some very valuable advice for those of you who may be new to this whole Disney thing: A Disney FastPass Rundown

Lastly, if you missed it earlier this week, take a peek at my post at Chip and Co: Disney + Creativity + Saving Money = Autograph Book Magic

Alrighty everyone: Have a magical weekend!

Share

Be Our Guest: Disney Dispatch Serves Up Food and Wine Festival Series

Nancy Food and Wine Festival , , , , 0 Comment

One of my favorite bloggers, Bob from the Disney Dispatch has been writing a series on the Food and Wine Festival that I wish I had read last year as a Food and Wine newbie: Country Cuisine Confidential, where he is literally reviewing each country participating in the festival, and offering descriptions of the food and drink available at each country.

Yes, an explanation of “What IS it” for each country’s food. 🙂

As Bob himself describes the series:

The three most common words spoken by guests at Epcot’s annual Food & Wine Festival aren’t “that’s so good!” but “what is this?”. Unless you’re a serious foodie, you’re going to be flummoxed by flavors untasted and dishes undreamed. Luckily, it isn’t a big deal since the folks serving the food love to talk about it and will answer all your questions.

But wouldn’t it be nice knowing a bit about each cuisine before you belly up to the booth?

….. I’m offering a crash course in demystifying the dishes served. Country by country, we’ll look together at the menu items and do some detective work to discover how each dish fits into the national cuisine, which ingredients are used in its preparation, and what it (should) taste like.

Nothing, of course, beats actually tasting the food, but on the assumption that your mind gets it before your stomach, let’s bib up the brain and see what’s on the menu.

Here is an excerpt for his entry on Mexico:

Mexico made its first appearance at the Food & Wine Festival in 1996, the same year that the Festival itself began. This year, the Mexican booth is in front of the Mexico Pavilion, where it belongs.

Let’s look at our menu:

Tamal de Pollo

Mexico is serving simple dishes with exotic names. A tamal de pollo is a chicken tamale. To make a tamale, meat- or vegetable-filled masa is wrapped in corn husks and then boiled or steamed. You unwrap it from the husk to eat it. Unlike a taco or a burrito, which you can eat by hand, a tamale is typically a plated dish that you eat with a fork.

Masa (Spanish for ‘dough’) is made from whole corn, not wheat. At the Festival, the masa will be filled with seasoned chicken, probably not too spicy, and not slathered with sauce, either. Tamales lack the universal appeal of easily eaten tacos and aren’t available at chains like Taco Bell. They’re also time-consuming to cook at home and require special ingredients like corn husks. That’s your cue to eat lots of them here!

You can read the rest of this post here: Country Cuisine Confidential 2010, Part 14: Mexico

And find a link to descriptions to all of the countries right here: Country Cuisine Confidential 2010: All You Need to Know About All There Is to Eat and Drink at the Food & Wine Festival

Bon Apetit!

Share

Disney Fun From Around the World: Week of Sept. 20, 2010

Nancy Disney Fun From Around the "World" , , , 2 Comments

Wow wow wow such a week of Disney news!! Or at least “sort of news”…..

In case you hadn’t heard, Disney planned a “major” announcement for 12:45 p.m. this past Thursday, and were doing live streaming video of the announcement. Bloggers, Twitterers, Facebook fans, and internet junkies all around the world cleared their calendars, sent their kids to the neighbors, rearranged meetings and spent two days online *talking* about it in advance: What would it be? A new ride? Another new DVC resort? New country in Epcot (LOT of votes for that one!)? Next year’s theme perhaps? Or all of the above?

So at the appointed time, millions of people all tuned in….

and the Disney site apparently crashed as a result.

A little too much interest shall we say…..

Once things got settled, the U-Stream video began, and we all learned that the BIG announcement was…………drumroll please……..

…..next year’s theme, which is centered around guest photographs and videos, submitted online and taken at the parks, to be used in commercials and shown on Cinderella’s Castle. The name is  “Let the Memories Begin” …..and once the big announcement was over, it was more like “let the howling begin”. 🙂

It’s been an interesting day reading blogs since then as a result. Here are some viewpoints of the new promotion:

The official announcement from the Disney Parks Blog is here: Disney Guests Become Stars of TV Ads, Castle Show As Walt Disney World and Disneyland ‘Let the Memories Begin

Katie at the DVC Life shares her thoughts on: disney memories

And John over on The Disney Blog offers a slightly different perspective: Let the Memories Begin, Disney Parks Launch Latest Promotion (part two)

Feel free to offer your own thoughts, either in the comments below, or on our Facebook page where we have been having a fairly lively discussion. 🙂

Alrighty then. In other news, there were some truly superb blog posts written on other topics too! A few favorites:

This is a touching story from the Disney Driven Life: EVOLUTION OF A DISNEY GEEK

Meltdown Free Disney offers some seasonal advice for those of you trying to figure out costumes this month: Costumes On A Budget (Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party anyone?)

Chris over at Everything Walt Disney World talks about a classic Disney World attraction that many of us hope never goes away: Carousel of Progress.

And our friends at Chip and Co continue to be very very busy! With the new Chip Panel, there have been some amazing tips, thoughts, ideas, and stories shared! Here are some that were among my favorites this week:

In addition, Chip and George from Imaginerding.com have a really cool project that they have announced: Geeks, Nerds and Disney Fans Unite! I am really looking forward to this!! 🙂

Lastly, and this week definitely least, you can check out my post at Chip and Co this week, in case you missed it: 5 Tips for Affordable Disney Pin Collecting 🙂

Whew! Busy week in the World of Disney blogs! Have a magical weekend!

Share