Disney Favorites of 2014

By Nick

2014 was a good year. We were very fortunate to visit Walt Disney World several times, and take a 4 night Cruise on the Disney Dream.

I shared food favorites this past Friday, but there was, of course, many other great attractions, experiences and entertainment, including one of my all time favorite movies ever, Guardians of the Galaxy. As these are in no particular order we may as well start there.

Guardians of the Galaxy is action packed, cleverly written, touching, fun, and, oh yea, funny. I got the 3D Blu-ray for Barbie for Christmas, because she loved it as much as me. If you haven't seen it, you really should.

Staying in the super hero vein, I would like to mention Marvel's Agents of Shield on ABC. Technically, it started in 2013, but it went from pretty good to great when they tied it in with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, (also highly recommended) making for one big, exciting, cohesive story full of great twists. Season 1 of Agents has recently been released on Netflix.

Speaking of ABC television, we discovered another favorite, Once Upon a Time. Yes, I know we are late to the party, and I don't feel this newest season was the best, but we love the show and all the Disney references they put in, and we had a great time binge watching the first 3 seasons, which can also be found on Netflix.

On to Walt Disney World. In January, we stayed at my new favorite resort, the Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort. Great location, great views, being able to hear the Magic Kingdom come alive early in the morning and watch the monorail and ferry go back and forth across Seven Seas Lagoon, the room was beautiful, the restaurants, the pools and the great beer selection at the bars.
I could go on and on.

On that same trip back in January, we had what I'm going to choose as best experience at Walt Disney World last year; being picked as the Celebrities of the Day at our favorite restaurant, The Hollywood Brown Derby in Disney's Hollywood Studios.

I say best experience at Walt Disney World, because we had really great experiences outside the bubble, which I would be totally remiss if I didn't discuss, so, in the interest of fairness, I have to mention Barbie getting chosen for a wand, or should I say, the wand choosing Barbie, at Ollivander's Wand Shop in Diagon Alley at Universal Studios. Our overall time at Universal was terrific fun, but this was my favorite moment, and as I type this, I'm looking over at the wand prominently displayed in our living room.

Back to Disney!
I have 2 days which leap out immediately as being favorites, overall, both of which are chronicled in trip reports, something I've started doing as a way to not only share our vacation with friends and family as well as blog readers, but mostly as a way for Barbie and I to remember.

The 1st day was on the Disney Dream, our first visit to Castaway Cay, and dressing as Santa and Mrs. Claus for the Halloween on the High Seas activities that evening.

 The second day was from our most recent trip. It was easily the most festive day of the holiday season for me, where we started the day taking the Behind the Seeds tour at Epcot, met Father Christmas in the UK, Barbie and I got our photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus, we had and excellent lunch at the Biergarten in Germany, complete with Christmas Carols from the band there, watched the most moving of all the storytellers, La Befana in Italy, saw the Candlelight Processional narrated by LaVar Burton and were very amused by the antics of Sigrid and Julenissen in Norway! Whew! And I'm leaving stuff out, even!

Favorite attraction. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. It's very well themed, features my favorite Disney character, Grumpy, and it doesn't make me motion sick. What's not to love? A new MUST do each trip!

Also at the Magic Kingdom, you'll find my favorite new afternoon parade, The Festival of Fantasy. Actually, there is only this one afternoon parade in Walt Disney World! We aren't parade fans, but this is worth seeing each and every trip!

Best Sing Along, (only Sing-Along ?) goes to For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration. As I've written about here on Musings, because we don't have kids, we really didn't get bombarded with the juggernaut Frozen became, so we really actually liked all the Frozen themed stuff around the park, and this sing-along was amazing, if only to hear a few hundred people sing what are some really great songs.

Best Character interactions; We love getting photos with characters, and the best are when there are multiple characters that interact with each other. At Disney's Animal Kingdom, we met King Louie and Baloo, and they had an altercation over Barbie's affections! It was hilarious.

A close runner up, Mickey Mouse. He talked to us! And not only that, he asked if we would like to pose as the Hitchhiking Ghosts! That was awesome.

 
Favorite new Podcast? Well, that's easy! The Disney Exchange, hosted by Lisa Green, Dave Hodges, and me! Please check us out on iTunes!

What was your favorite Disney moment of 2014?

Choosing your Resort By Room Picture – the Deluxe Villas

By Shendl

If money was no object, or if you are a Disney Vacation Club (DVC) Member,  and you could only choose your Disney Villa by a picture of the bedroom, which one would you choose?

The names are at the bottom of the article – No peeking!

Your choice may surprise you!

1.

2.

3.

4.

 5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Of all the Deluxe Villa Bedrooms, my #1 choice would be No10!
Which one will you choose?

1. Animal Kingdom Lodge - Jambo House
2. Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village
3. Contemporary Resort - Bay Lake Tower
4. Beach Club Villa’s
5. Boardwalk Villa’s
6. Old Key West Resort
7. Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa – Treehouse Villa’s
8. Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
9. Villa’s at Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
10. Villa’s at Wilderness Lodge Resort & Spa

Room photographs are from the Walt Disney World website.

Gasparilla Island Grill at Disney's Grand Floridian

By: Nick

In January, while staying at the Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort, Barbie and I ate several meals at the resorts quick service restaurant, the Gasparilla Island Grill.

Gasparillas is a convenient and quiet spot to start the day, and we had breakfast here before heading to the parks on a few occasions. Breakfast is served until 11am.

It does get crowded, but we never had a problem finding an open table. Actually, we had a regular booth that we sat at during every visit.

Interestingly, this wasn't always a quiet spot. While looking online at Disney's Official Site, the photo that is featured shows several arcade games along the wall, so I was not expecting it to be as nice as it turned out to be. The games have been moved to their own separate arcade space located adjacent to the Grill during a refurbishment that took place starting back in 2012. I bring this up in case you do research and find that photo. Odd that Disney hasn't updated their site.

The food offerings are standard Disney fare. There is an assortment of bagels and pastries to choose from.

The menu board will help you make other choices, such as the Bounty Platter, Croissant Sandwich, or...

... Mickey-shaped Waffles!

There are healthy choices as well, which can be found in the refrigerated section, such as fresh fruit, vegetables, and yogurt. My wife Barbie inexplicably chose some of these one morning. (Who eats healthy on vacation, really?!)

On another morning I had the pancakes, and they were very good.

We also had dinner here one evening.

The offerings include made to order sandwiches, such as the Grand Turkey, Ham and Swiss, and Roast Beef, burgers, pizzas, soups, and the aforementioned grab 'n' go items.
You can also create your own salads by choosing from Romaine Lettuce or Baby Greens and a variety of your favorite ingredients, adding Flank Steak or grilled chicken

I had a Angus bacon cheeseburger that was very tasty, one of the better quick service burgers in my opinion. And the homemade potato chips are terrific. You can get cucumber salad instead of chips.

Barbie had the Margherita Flatbread, which is made with Mozzarella, Tomato, and Basil, which she really enjoyed.

For dessert they offer cookies, brownies, cake, soft serve ice cream, and a selection of frozen treats like the beloved Mickey Premium Ice Bar.

There is also seating outdoors, and if you time it right, you can catch Wishes from the Magic Kingdom!

Gasparilla's is open 24/7, if you are hankering for a snack after a long day at the park.

Sunrise over Walt Disney World's Seven Seas Lagoon

A while back I shared a video of the view from our room at The Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian.
I also shot some video of the Sunrise from our room, and thought I'd share it today.

Here is a short video followed by a link to a longer version on my YouTube channel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0LxEhfnN_E&feature=youtu.be

Craft Beer at Walt Disney World

By: Nick

Today is National Beer Day in the United States, so I thought we'd take a look at the emerging craft beer selections at Walt Disney World.

On our last 2 trips, in October of 2013, and this past January, I discovered several locations offering a fairly decent beer menu.

Let's start with what I found in October.

Barbie and I stayed at the Art of Animation Resort. The food court, Landscape of Flavors, has a fairly decent beer selection, including offerings from local Orlando Brewing. But I was really excited to find a couple of beers from the highly rated Cigar City Brewing out of Tampa Florida, as well as a couple other excellent choices from Bell's and Breckenridge Brewing over at Pop Century's Everything Pop food court.

I took a couple back over to Art of Animation to enjoy at the pool.

One of the best times for beer at WDW is during Epcot's International Food and Wine Festival. There are dozens of choices, with just about every food booth offering at least one beer. A couple of my favorites were found at the Florida Local stand.

Me enjoying a Cigar City Florida Cracker Belgian-style White Ale

 

In addition, there are booths dedicated exclusively to beer!

Menu from the Craft Beer stand.

 

It was on this trip that I also discovered one of Disney's best kept secrets located inside the Mitsukoshi Department Store in Epcot's Japan Pavilion. The Garden House Sake Bar serves Ginga Kogen, a wheat beer. It is awesome.

There is also a new permanent structure serving craft beer located outside of the United States Pavilion at Epcot called Block & Hans, which was a souvenir stand at one time. There were only a few beers to choose from, but they are quality choices. The cast member I spoke to said they would be expanding their selection in the future, which they have indeed done, as we'll see when we look at January's offerings!

One more stop from October can be found at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The Gardens is a gluten free stand which has some gluten free beers!

I confess, I didn't try any, but it's good to know these choices are available.

In January we stayed the The Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort, and I was very happy with the beer selection at the pools and restaurants.

Both Beaches Pool Bar & Grill and Courtyard Pool Bar have a good selection.

The menus even break down beer by categories to help you decide!

Further assisting your choices is a description of the beers!

While not quite as extensive as the pool menus, the beer choices at Narcoosee's located on the shores of the Seven Seas Seas Lagoon has a pretty good list.

Citricos, located inside the Grand Floridian also has a few nice choices.

Let's shoot over to Epcot. In the France Pavilion at Le Vins des Chefs de France you'll find one of my favorite beers, 1664 Blanc, as well as Kronenbourg 1664.

Over in the Mexico Pavilion, La Cava del Tequila is now offering beer from Dia de los Muertos. I did not try them because when in Rome, er, Mexico, I drink Tequila, but I intend to try these out if I ever see them at a local beer store.

Last but not least, we'll return to Block & Hans, where, as promised, the beer selection has become slightly more robust.

They are also carrying Mickey-shaped and Jalapeno Pretzels, which are excellent with a Hopageddon Imperial IPA from Napa Smith, maybe one of the best India Pale Ales I've ever had!

There is a great site to visit for a more comprehensive overview of beer in Walt Disney World called Beers and Ears, in fact I reviewed their app a few months back. However, things constantly change at Disney World, and clearly this topic requires much further investigation, and I will endeavor to do as much research as needed in the future.

It's the least I can do for you loyal readers!