New addition to Epcot World Showcase

This thought has crossed my mind in the past couple years as I have had colleagues of mine come from India for meetings, "Why is India omitted from World Showcase?". Don't get me wrong, short of slighting represented countries such as Morocco, how did the world's second most populated country get omitted here? I find it hard to explain to them why their country is not represented.

India has such a rich culture to share and food is quite unique. I would bet it would be a huge hit among us Epcot fans. Not to mention the many Indian transplants that live and work in the United States.

A smaller scale replica of the Taj Mahal would be a wonderful addition to the World Showcase. The question remains, where to fit it. There does not appear to be much room for additions around World Showcase. Perhaps at the base of World Showcase between Mexico and the entrance to Future World. I suppose another country could be added on the reverse side between Canada and the entrance to Future World.

None of this is based on facts or rumors I heard, all of this is just what I think that would be a wonderful addition to Epcot. Wouldn't it be cool though?

Our Disney Vacation: Part 2-Disney Dining

The toughest thing to try and figure out when you head to Walt Disney World on vacation is how much to budget for food, snacks, drinks, etc. Also, the last thing we want to worry about every day is "How much did I spend today?". When we go on vacation, especially to WDW, we want to be away from the everyday worries of the regular world. Re-calculating your budget everyday brings you back to that world.

The solution we found was the Disney Dining Plan. While we have heard of the plan in the past we had never really looked into it. Our first decision was which plan to use Disney Dining Plan (1 Table Service, 1 Counter Service, 2 snacks per person, per night stay) or Disney Deluxe Dining Plan (3 Table Service, 2 snacks per person, per night stay). In looking at our reservations we had initially had four sit-down or table service setup. We really did not want to eliminate one, nor did we want to pay any additional money for meals. So we opted for the Deluxe Plan. It was more money and a bit more than what we budgeted, but we figured to get our money's worth. So we ended up with nine table-service meals. An added bonus was getting four resort mugs with free refills during our stay.

In getting the nine table service meals we were able to visit all of our favorite places to dine in WDW. We ate at Chef Mickey's, 1900 Park Fare, Boma, Crystal Palace, Tony's Town Square, Teppan Edo (Epcot Japan). We also visited the Wave at The Contemporary Resort for the first time. The great thing about dining at Disney, plan or not, is the great variety you get.

One piece of advice I have is to make your dining reservations early. You can make dining reservations 180 days out for most people, 190 days out if you have resort reservations in place. A nice new service from Disney is the ability to make reservations online at http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/reservations/dining/ or call 407-WDW-DINE.

I have to say after this year's vacation we will be using this plan again for the great variety and peace of mind.

Our Disney Vacation: Part 1-Contemporary Resort Review

My wife Nadine and I decided to book our summer vacation at our favorite destination, Walt Disney World several months back. Usually we try for an out of state trip, last year was Washington DC. Being Florida residents and Annual Passholders we are privileged to be able to make it to the "Mouse House" as often as we please. It is a short 75 minute drive away. Realizing our boys, ages 7 and 4 won't be this age for long, we wanted to give them a true Disney vacation. So we went all out by booking the Contemporary Resort, Purchased the Dining Plans and booked 4 days and 3 nights. I plan on breaking this review of our trip into three parts. Part one reviewing the Contemporary Resort, Part 2 Reviewing the Disney Dining Plan and Part 3 reviewing our touring plans. Hopefully I can pass on some good insight when planning a future Disney Vacation of your own.

When looking at dates we knew it would need to be over the summer vacation since my wife is a school teacher and the kids have school of their own. Knowing the peak of summer vacation would be around the 4th of July Week and\or weekend we decided to shoot for the week before. This was so the crowds would be smaller and prime dining reservations would be available (More on this in Part 2). Over the years we have stayed at most Disney resorts from value to moderate to deluxe. Our favorite is the Contemporary Resort. We had stayed there six years ago and decided on a return trip. Our youngest son, Andrew (age 4), had not yet experienced the place.

Since we go often to WDW we decided to hold back from going leading up to the vacation date. It had been six weeks since we last were on property. Arriving the morning of our check-in was great. We arrived about 11 AM and even though check-in was not until 3 PM our room was ready. This was nice to allow us to get settled before getting into our day (More on this in Part 3). Since we were on the Deluxe Dining Plan we headed to the Wave restaurant. This was a new addition since our last stay. Disney had swapped the Counter Service Restaurant-Contempo Cafe to the Grand Concourse and opened The Table Service Wave Restaurant in the Lobby (More on the Wave in Part 2). After lunch the boys were dying to get into the pool after seeing the water slide. Disney pools seem to have this affect on kids somehow. We took them swimming for awhile. We didn't mind beating the mid-afternoon heat at the pool at all!

This allowed us to settle into our spacious room. We stayed in the Garden Wing which had been remolded recently. The rooms had an updated modern decor as you would expect from a place called the Contemporary. Our oldest son Matthew appreciated the 48" LCD HD TV with front AV jacks for his Nintendo Wii. The rooms were equipped with Wifi and a spacious desk area for our laptops. Our room had a built in mini-fridge, two-closets. The bathroom was very spacious with an equally spacious toilet room with privacy door. The room had two Queen Beds with a fold out couch bed. We could have easily slept six with enough room to move around.

The best reason to stay at the Contemporary though is the prime directive in real estate. Location! Location! Location! Being on the monorail system makes it very easy to get to our two favorite parks Epcot and Magic Kingdom. We were able to watch fireworks from the staircase balcony on the seventh floor with a fantastic view. Disney even accommodates by pumping in the music from the show to the outdoor area we were at.

Another nice perk by staying at the Contemporary was easy access to Chef Mickey's, WDW's premier character meal place (More in Part 2). The resort had many other fine features such as para-sailing, boat rentals, kids activities poolside. Basically there is something for everybody. You would need to stay many times before trying everything.

All in all we had a great time and would recommend the experience to anyone.

Fourth of July review of WDW fireworks shows.

We actually ran the 4th of July gauntlet of watching the Magic Kingdom fireworks show at 9 PM and hopping a couple monorails to get to Epcot just in time for the 10 PM show. As an added bonus we caught the Hollywood Studio show in the distance while approaching Epcot's show. Many thanks to my lovely wife and two kids who were up for the madness. It is surely a night we won't forget as a family.

Here is what I used as a plan of attack. First, we parked at Epcot upon our arrival to Walt Disney World. Since it was still raining lightly we decided to ride some rides at Epcot since a lot of rides are indoors. We went on Soarin, Living with the Land, Finding Nemo and Test Track. Then we departed for Magic Kingdom on the monorail. We are lucky to be Annual Passholders because the monorail was closed to anyone who was not a Passholder or Resort Guest.

Upon arrival at Magic Kingdom around 7 PM, we could see the park filling fast. They were setting up for the parade even though the parade would not start until 10 PM. What this meant was precious space on Main Street USA was blocked off from viewing to allow for foot traffic back and forth. We decided to head to Cosmic Rays for dinner since it is our favorite counter service place at WDW. After dinner we tried to head back to Main Street USA to find any spot we could. Traffic was being diverted from tomorrowland behind the buildings along Main Street USA. In this area Disney was setting up an overflow viewing area for the fireworks. While the viewing spot was good, being in a behind the scenes working area seemed to cheat the experience of being in Magic Kingdom for the 4th of July. We then exited this area and were back at the front of the park by Tony's Town Square restaurant. We found space at the front of the park by the train station. With one hour to go the boys passed the time playing with the Disney provided hula-hoops. The crowd swelled to fill every available space on Main Street USA that Disney did not rope off for traffic. When the fireworks started we were pleasantly surprised the see the fireworks not only behind Cinderella's castle but also over Seven Seas Lagoon. It was a true panoramic show. As with all Disney fireworks shows they were well choreographed to music.

After the twenty minute show was done at Magic Kingdom we bolted for the monorails. Since we were positioned so close to the entrance of Magic Kingdom by the Main Street Train Station, we were able to catch the first express monorail that came upon our arrival at the monorail station. We then transferred to the Epcot monorail at the Ticket and Transportation Center. We just got shut out of catching the first Epcot monorail, but caught the second about 10 minutes later. Then we were off to Epcot for our second fireworks show of the evening.

After getting to Epcot we headed back to the World Showcase lagoon. We arrived just as the show started. We inched our way up to base of the World Showcase were it meets the walkway from Future World. A perfect spot to watch the show. After illuminations finished it's normally stunning show, we were treated to a Celebration of Independence finale. It was about a five minute show choreographed to music and sound bites from America's history. The grand finale was in a word, awesome! The bombs that burst in air that night were the most deafening that I have experienced in my life. Simply stunning! It was a great finish to a most magical day and why no one does family entertainment like Disney. Even with the overcast day, it was an experience my family won't forget.

In honor of the classic 4th of July method of celebration.....fireworks!

Here is a tribute to all of the Disney fireworks shows over the years. Enjoy!

Happy 4th of July Everyone!

Fourth of July, WDW Style

Happy 4th of July Weekend everybody! Don't miss the special fireworks shows at WDW on Sunday. Magic Kingdom – “Celebrate America Fireworks” will kickoff everything at 9 p.m. Then at Disney’s Hollywood Studios – Rock ‘n’ Roll fireworks will be at 9:50 p.m and finally Illuminations at Epcot will have a patriotic finale at 10 PM. Good luck making it to all of the shows!

Here is another cool video featuring Epcot from the Disney Parks Blog!

A very cool video from The Disney Parks Blog featuring Magic Kingdom!

Welcome to my WDW blog.

Well folks here it goes. I don't know who will read this, if anyone, but I feel I have some good info to share. I have traveled all around this country, but no place can make you forget about the outside world more than Walt Disney World.

My wife Nadine and I have been WDW Passholders since 2004. We have two young boys, Matthew (7 years old) and Andrew (4 years old). My wife and I started going to Disney on our honeymoon 10 years ago. While we both had visited separately over the years, we both fell in love with the place together. After our oldest son Matthew was born in 2002 we could not wait to bring him to Disney. However, he was a preemie and had complications at birth which kept us from bringing him to such public places until he was over 18 months old. After bringing him we quickly upgraded to be passholders so we could come more often. I quickly studied everything I could about Walt Disney World. I wanted to know all I could about this magical place. Now we have a 4 year old son who is at the ripe age in my opinion the best age to experience WDW.

From my study of books, guides, blogs, twitter, facebook, etc to my 100s of visits I will share my personal knowledge to this blog. I hope you enjoy it and find it informative.