Author: Adventures by Anne

In case you missed it…

All Disney Parks Castles

New things are being announced and existing things are changing literally every day at the Disney parks. It’s hard to keep up. Here’s a quick summary for you, at least of some of the big things as of mid June. There are too many to list every single thing.

  • Disneyland Paris has finally reopened, so all Disney Parks around the world are now open.
  • Disneyland California has reopened to out of state guests too.
  • Most important: Park reservations are still needed in all parks, in addition to your park ticket, and they do run out fast! Check for availability before you buy your park tickets or lock in hotel or flights incase you need to adjust your dates based on availability.
  • PhotoPass photographers are now allowed to use your phone/camera to take pictures for you again. Though, there is also a relatively new 1 day PhotoPass plan if you want a limited, cheaper plan.
  • They are no longer providing free MagicBands for resort guests. You can still buy them for $10+, or use a previous one though.
  • For Disney World FL, you can set up Mobile Pass on your phone now, like a digital version of your MagicBand, if you don’t want to wear a MagicBand. It can be stored in your digital wallet and tied to an Apple watch so you can scan that instead of your phone everywhere where you’d scan your magic band.
  • Disney World FL advanced dining reservations now start booking at 60 days before your check-in date.
  • Disney World FL nighttime shows are returning on July 1st at Magic Kingdom, “Happily Ever After”, and Epcot, “Epcot Forever”.
  • Disney World FL announced the Boo Bash after party event, which replaces the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party this year. Tix on sale now.
  • Disney World FL has announced events opening Oct 1st for the Magic Kingdom 50th Anniversary – Magic Kingdom “Disney Enchantment” nighttime show, Epcot “Harmonious” nighttime show and new Remy ride, Animal Kingdom “Kite Tails” daytime show.
  • Many favorite restaurants and resorts are finally re-opening again.
  • All previously buffet style restaurants are serving food platters to your table family style instead but still all-you-can-eat.
  • Menu items at all restaurants may still be reduced, though starting to expand again, so check the posted menu on the actual Disney site or app for the latest n greatest to make sure your favorites are there.
  • Masks are optional for guests and cast members in all park areas besides the Disney monorail, buses, and Skyliners.
  • Social distancing restrictions and plexiglass dividers have been removed in most stores, queues, and ride cars.
  • Ride pre-shows are returning.
  • Disney rides and transportation are loading at full capacity, including multiple parties together.
  • Single rider lines are returning on most rides also.
  • Mobile ordering is strongly encouraged in most quick service restaurants. It’s great actually, cuts your wait time tremendously.
  • FastPasses and dining plans are still not back, so plan your ride and food strategy accordingly.
  • Rope drop is available at most parks again, where they are likely to let you in the parks almost an hour before park opening.
  • Parking lots may not let you in as early if you’re not using Disney transportation though, so use Disney transportation if you’re rope dropping.
  • Learn the strategies for getting boarding groups for rides with virtual queues beforehand – Rise of the Resistance in FL and CA and the new Spiderman ride in CA.
  • The new Marvel land, Avengers Campus, has opened in CA.
  • Disney World’s Magical Express will no longer mail you a confirmation letter for check-in. As long as you’ve added your flight info to your resort reservation, you can just use your magic band to scan into the Magical Express check-in at the airport. If you don’t have your magic band yet, they can look up your reservation there. If you have a magic band from a previous trip that you haven’t deactivated, then you can still use that.
  • Magical Express is ending at the end of 2021, but there will likely be another transportation option to the resorts.
  • Disney Cruise Lines has revealed more details about their newest ship, the Disney Wish. Inaugural sailings will start in June 2022 and sailings through Dec 2022 are open for booking now.

OK, this list got pretty long and there are more. See, there are just so many recent changes. Feel free to contact me if you want more info about any of these points, or anything else.

Starting the Wizarding Journey…

Harry Potter Reading Magic logo

Are you ready to start your Harry Potter journey?

If you, or someone you know, has not read the Harry Potter books yet, now is the best time to start. What better series to encourage summer reading!?! And, what better way to prepare for future trips to the Universal Parks?!? They have recreated the Harry Potter worlds to such amazing detail! The movies barely cover half of the details in the books. Knowing more from the books will take your trips to the next level.

Starting this week, you can participate in extra activities and get reading guides as you start reading the first book at the Harry Potter Reading Magic site. I know it sounds like it’s geared towards your little ones, but who says magic is limited to littles?

These books get more and more intricate and nuanced as you progress in the series. They are no way just children’s books if you get into all the details and implications. Once I started, I couldn’t put them down. I stayed up all night to finish each book as soon as it came out because each chapter ended on such a cliff-hanger. The writing is so vivid that you really get pulled in and immersed in their world. You will want to keep going. I may just have to join this party and start re-reading again! Follow along in this magical journey!

Open your first Harry Potter book...

We’re Back!

Disney World Gate

Oh what fun flying can be! Travel day didn’t go quite as planned, but alas, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that we’re finally back at Disney World!

Come follow along as we embark on our first trip back after a tough year and a half – June Disney World Trip. We have tons of grand plans – lots of parks and restaurants and other fun stuff. Let’s hope those plans go better than our flight down.

Pop Century

Guess what?

We’re going to Disney World!

After a long year and a half, we’re finally all vaccinated and able to go now! We can’t wait! It’s been a tough year, so we need to be immersed in some Disney magic.

This is also my first actual trip since becoming a travel advisor, so I’ll be looking at things from that angle as well. I’ll capture things that would be helpful to you in planning your trip.

I’ll try to post pics and trip recaps each day or soon afterwards, so follow along here!

Four Disney Parks Icons

Planning a Disney World Trip?

Time for Magic

Are you thinking of planning a trip to Disney World?

Check out my info pages about Disney World. Hopefully, they will help your planning. I’ve added some notes recently to reflect some post-Covid changes, but things are changing everyday. Make sure to know before you go.

Contact me if you want to chat about any of this, or if you would like me to help you plan your magical trip! I’m so excited for you!

Disneyland California reopens

Disneyland characters

Disneyland parks in California finally reopened to state residents last month. And starting June 15, 2021, they will be open to out of state residents as well!

There are still some restrictions though, so be sure to know before you go. Most notably, you will also have to make park reservations, in addition to buying your tickets, so plan ahead.

Also of note, if you’re into Marvel, the Avengers Campus is opening tomorrow!!

We hope to go soon!

Road trips around the U.S.

We love road trips! Though we will love to visit every country eventually, since we live in the United States right now, we’ve done trips around here the most.

We’ve gone all around the Northeast, up n down the East Coast, all around the Southwest, and up n down the California Coast. We’re still working on the other corners and areas in between. I’ll try to add more road trip planning info and trip recaps of some of our past trips soon in the hopes that it’ll help you with your trip too.

In the meantime, here are some sites to start you thinking about the future road trips that we can all try to take when it’s safe to do so. Even if you can’t do the full trip, you can get ideas for the segments of the trips that are near the areas that you want to go to. And of course, you should adapt the itinerary to the pace that you like to take.

Feel free to contact me if you want to chat about planning your trip.

New Disney Wish Details

Disney Wish Atrium

Disney Cruise Lines has finally announced the sailing dates for their newest ship, the Disney Wish! We’ve been dyin’ to hear this and can’t wait to go! Drumroll…..

The maiden voyage will be a 5 night Bahamian cruise from Port Canaveral, Florida, on June 9, 2022! Ahhhhh!

That will be followed by their regular 3 and 4 night Bahamian sailings for the rest of that summer. Well, probably for the rest of time too, but they’ve only officially announced sailing dates through late September so far.

The sailings will open for booking in a few weeks, starting May 17, 2021, depending on your Castaway Club member level! Double Ahhhhh!

They also gave many cool details on the shows, restaurants, pools, water coaster!, entertainment areas, kids clubs, and cabin rooms! You have to watch the video below! It all looks amazing! I looooooove the gorgeous atrium design (above image), especially the wishing star concept of the chandelier!!

Watch the story behind the design concept of the Wish here.

Watch the official details video here. Fun fact, Ashley was the assistant cruise director on our Alaskan cruise many years ago, and the director of our Caribbean cruise a few years ago. She’s awesome! I hope this means that she will be the director of the Wish. Directors are the ones in charge of the entertainment, so they’re very important.

Read about the details of the Wish here. This has lots of still photos of what was revealed in the video above and was written by the owner of the travel agency I belong to.

Check the sailing itineraries for the Wish here.

Are you excited to sail on the new ship? Can you tell that I’m excited? Lol! Sorry for all the exclamations.

I would love to help you book it so that you can join us too! Email me!