Natlyn's Disney Do or Die...Part 1

"Life moves pretty fast...if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." 

Life sure has moved fast. So fast, that it's been a year since my last return home. Last summer my husband and I (our couple name is "Natlyn"-Nathan and Katlyn) went on what I like to call a "do or die" trip. I've done one before with my mom and they're high-intensity, but lots of fun. How it works is this: we take an early morning flight (this one was at 6am) and arrive at MCO in the early afternoon. Hop on the Magical Express to our resort, then off to a park. Hit 2 parks on arrival day, the other two parks the second day, then hit Disney Springs on departure day. The thing that has to be understood with this style of trip is that you have to have somewhat of a plan and also know that you won't get to do everything. In this particular case, Extra Magic Hours were most definitely our friend, and dictated how we would visit the parks. 

Did you really fly through MCO if you didn't stop for a pic here?

We started our trip with a flight out of our home airport, which included a small layover in Atlanta. Fortunately the weather was in our favor so we had no delays or turbulence and arrived to MCO fairly quickly. A quick trek over to the Magical Express and we were off.  We stayed at the All-Star Movies resort (which coincidentally, was where I stayed when I previously did a "do or die" trip). A quick stop at our room to drop off some items, then a stop at the food court for our reusable mugs (we had selected to do the Dining Plan to make planning easier) and a water bottle fill up and we met our Minnie Van we had ordered to take us to Animal Kingdom. 

Nothing like a selfie with a giraffe butt

After an amazing Minnie Van experience, we headed into Animal Kingdom. We hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we mobile-ordered some pizza from Pizzafari. We ordered in the Oasis and by time we arrived at Pizzafari our food was ready and waiting for us. (seriously-Mobile Order is amazing, and such a time saver). After we finished lunch, we headed off for our first fastpass: Kilimanjaro Safaris. Pro tip: in a "do-or-die" or short trip, book your fastpasses in back to back windows. This will maximize your fastpass capabilities. More on that later. We hit our safari, which was once again quite awesome. 

After our safari, we headed over to Asia to hit the single rider line for Expedition Everest. By time we were done with that, we had entered our second fastpass window, which was for Dinosaur. I was excited for this one, because we weren't able to ride it our previous trip due to being closed for refurbishment. Then it was time for the most exciting fastpass: Flight of Passage. Initially, when I had booked our fastpasses, I wasn't able to get a FOP fastpass. But, thanks to incessant checking of the My Disney Experience app, I was able to snag one, replacing the one I had initially booked for Na'vi River Journey (we'll eventually get to ride that one, one day). Entering Pandora was like entering another world. It was so beautiful. Flight of Passage blew my mind. It was like Soarin' on steroids. I really felt like I was flying on a banshee. My husband equally loved it. After we finished Flight of Passage, we grabbed a Mo'ara margarita, stopped at one of the shops so I could live my best #basic life and get my rose gold ears, then we were off to Epcot. Oh and fun fact: we did all of that in about 2 and a half hours.  

Hubby enjoying his Mo'ara margarita. 

Pandora is so beautiful. I can't wait to have more time to explore

Soarin' selfie

When we arrived at Epcot we headed to ride Journey into Imagination with Figment. After a brief pause to do some doctoring on some unfortunate blisters, we headed over to the Disney Chase Visa Character Meet. It's located right across from the Imagination pavilion. Just show your Disney Chase Visa card and you get into a character meet n greet with minimal waiting. We have done this once before. This particular one typically has 2 of the "Fab Five" characters. Previously, we had met Minnie and Pluto. This time, we met Mickey and Goofy. No waiting. After this, we headed over to the Land Pavilion. We had previously booked a fastpass for Soarin' (once we had scanned our FOP fastpass), but hadn't quite hit our window yet. So we hopped on Living with the Land. We both enjoy going through the greenhouses and seeing the different things that Disney grows. Once we finished that, it was time for Soarin'. We decided to wait a little bit extra so that we could have the top row of section b-aka the best view. And let me tell you-it did not disappoint. Well worth the extra 10 minutes we waited for it. After that, it was time for dinner. We had decided to save our table service credits for the next day at Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom, so we ate dinner at Sunshine Seasons right across from Soarin'. After we finished dinner, we headed into World Showcase. We had a mission pre-park close: hit the Tea Caddy in the United Kingdom for our favorite snacks. We were able to complete our mission, then we headed over to Norway. At first we were going to ride Frozen Ever After, but decided that instead (since we had ridden that one before) that we would go meet Elsa and Anna in their Sommerhus. We then made a stop in my favorite pavilion-Mexico. We wandered inside for a few minutes and saw the Coco displays, which of course brought a couple tears to my eyes. As we wandered by Choza de Margarita, a thirst hit, and so we got another margarita-this time lime. We then wandered over to see the "Rose Gold Wall" and the "Guardians Wall". Of course, harkening back to my #basic nature, photos were taken at each. Before we left Epcot that night, we took a ride on Spaceship Earth (which may be the last time we ride it before it closes for its long refurbishment). 

Grand and Miraculous for sure!

A selfie with the queen herself!

We then headed back to All-Star Movies to rest up for the next day...a day that would start at 7am and end at 1am...to be continued. 

Minnie Vans!

During our whirlwind "Do or Die" trip this past August, we utilized Disney's Minnie Van service.
Powered by Lyft, Minnie Vans are an additional transportation option available on Walt Disney World property.

Our first Minnie Van ride!

To utilize Minnie Vans, you need to use the Lyft app. Once on property, open the app (making sure location services are on). It will detect that you're on property and offer Minnie Vans as an option. Select where you want to go and it will send a Minnie Van to retrieve you. Depending on where you are, the app will have you select your pick up location (example: when we had it pick us up at the All-Star Movies Resort, we could select from the different areas of the resort or the main lobby). You'll also get what van number to expect, along with the estimated arrival time.

Once your van arrives your driver will verify where you are wanting to be taken to and whisk you off to your destination. As Minnie Vans are run by Disney Transportation, they are able to utilize the backstage roads and have designated areas within the bus depots at the parks (Hollywood Studios has an off area that's actually closer than their bus area due to construction). They even have their own in car music. Minnie Vans are able to take up to 6 people, and come equipped with 2 car seats. (The ones we used were Chevrolet Traverses, to give you an idea of size). Once you arrive, you'll receive an automatic notification from Lyft, giving you the option to add a tip to your ride as well as rate your ride.

The cost of a Minnie Van is a little on the pricier side. One ride is $25. Many may argue that why pay for this when the resort busses are free. And to some extent I agree. However, if you're in a pinch to get somewhere quickly, or are wanting to go from your resort to another and not have to ride a bus to a park then switch busses, then Minnie Vans is an option. I think for families with small kiddos Minnie Vans would be a nice way to get to and from.

On one of our Minnie Van rides (our first one in fact), we had the most amazing driver. His name was Wes, and he has worked for Disney for 41 years! He told us about the first time he went to Walt Disney World (a month after it opened in 1971); he said then he wanted to come back and work there on the Jungle Cruise and sure enough, when he got a job at Disney, he was a skipper on the Jungle Cruise. He was also on the opening team for Tower of Terror (he said there are still 3 or 4 of that opening team that work on Tower of Terror still today)-he shared of the first time Disney hosted a wedding at Tower of Terror and him and another cast member ended up being ushers for the wedding in their bellhop costumes. I spent the entire ride geeking out. I of course took a selfie with him at the end.

Wes, our first Minnie Van driver (and my personal favorite of the ones we had)

All in all, I really enjoyed our Minnie Van experience. Was it a little on the pricey side? Yes. Was the convenience worth it? I think so. My theory is that within the next few years Minnie Van service will be fully integrated into the My Disney Experience app (which may allow for lower costs, or a buy so many days at a lower rate/day type situation). Already within the first year of service, Minnie Van service has expanded from a select few resorts to resort-wide and is now about to roll out service to and from Orlando International Airport.


***UPDATE: after this was published, Minnie Vans switched their pricing from a flat rate pricing, to a distance-based pricing, which has made them more than the pricing discussed earlier in this post. I still think that once it's fully Disney's, it may lessen the cost some (fingers crossed).

Epcot International Food and Wine Festival!

2016 Artwork by Disney

Every year, Epcot hosts its International Food and Wine Festival. This event is a fan favorite, and this year it runs from August 30th through November 12th. Disney recently released all of the menus for the different food kiosks. We attended the Food and Wine Festival during our honeymoon in 2016. I'm going to share some of our favorites from 2016 that will be available this year during the Food and Wine Festival.

Australia Global Marketplace
We enjoyed the Grilled Lamb Chop with Mint Pesto and Potato Crunchies. Quite tasty; the mint pesto was refreshing.

Belgium Global Marketplace
This booth was a favorite of mine. We had the Beer Braised Beef with Smoked Gouda Mashed Potatoes, which reminded me of a pot roast. So delicious. We also had the Belgian Waffle with Warm Chocolate Ganache and Whipped Cream. They also serve the waffle with a berry compote and whipped cream.

So yummy

So so good. 

Brazil Global Marketplace
At the Brazil booth we enjoyed Pão de Queijo, which is Brazilian Cheese Bread. Can't go wrong with cheesy bread.

Canada Global Marketplace We enjoyed the Canadian Cheddar Cheese and Bacon Soup served with a Pretzel roll. While this is slated as "cheddar cheese" soup, I found it to be more like a potato soup. Still quite delightful, but not what I was expecting.

Shown with Neige Premiere Apple Ice Wine

China Global Marketplace
My husband had the Beijing Roasted Duck Bao Bun with Hoisin Sauce. He found texture of the bao bun to be interesting (not bad, just interesting).

Flavors from Fire Marketplace
During our festival we didn't go to this booth, however an item that is there for this year was previously at a different booth. We had the Piggy Wings, which are roasted pork wings with Korean bbq sauce and sesame seeds. This was my husbands favorite item of the entire festival, so much so that he got them two different times.

Germany Global Marketplace
At this booth we enjoyed Schinkennudeln, which is Pasta Gratin with Ham, Onions and Cheese. This reminded me of a baked macaroni and cheese, though lighter on the cheese than an American baked mac n cheese would be.

Shown with Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese

Hawai'i Global Marketplace
My husband had the Kalua Pork Slider with Sweet and Sour Dole Pineapple Chutney and Spicy Mayonnaise. He really enjoyed it.

Ireland Global Marketplace
This booth had one of my favorites: the Warm Chocolate Pudding with Irish Cream Liqueur Custard. This was another item we got two times. While it is listed as "pudding", to me it was more of a pudding cake. Oh so delicious.

shown with Bumratty Meade Honey Wine

Morocco Global Marketplace
At the Morocco Marketplace, we enjoyed the Chocolate Baklava, which has toasted almonds and chocolate sauce on top. I absolutely loved the Chocolate Baklava. So delicious!

We enjoyed some other items that aren't offered at this years festival. We had kielbasa with potato pierogis from the Poland Marketplace, Chicken Potstickers from the China Marketplace, the Beef Empanada from the Patagonia Marketplace, and Buttered Chicken and Naan Bread from the Africa Marketplace (though my husband still reminds me how he got none of the naan bread, whoops). There were also a couple of items that we didn't care for, but they aren't back for this year's festival.

The Food and Wine Festival attracts many visitors. The main time we visited the festival (end of October) was a Wednesday afternoon. Hardly any of the booths had a line longer than a person or two. We also stopped by a couple booths on a Saturday afternoon and it looked like peak season in World Showcase. My recommendation is to visit booths during the week if you're able to. You are able to use snack credits from the Disney Dining Plan towards the different items at the Marketplaces. Happy eating!

The Disney Honeymoon Registry

My mother always told me that it is in poor taste to ask people for money for your honeymoon. And to some extent, I agree. When giving a gift, especially a wedding gift, you want to give an actual thing or experience. Prior to becoming engaged, I had heard that Disney offered a honeymoon registry. So I knew I wanted to incorporate that as a registry choice, as we had already decided to have a Disney honeymoon.
A quick google search led me to Disney Honeymoon Wishes. This site allows you to create your own Disney registry. It's free and simple to use. You create your account and then begin picking items for your registry (similar to any other registry you create).

our opening bio for our registry

As you pick the items for your registry, you can pick the amount of that item and the cost of that item. For example, we had an option for park tickets. The gift was a $50 gift, and there were 6 of that gift available. We did a variety of pricing, to give people the best option for their budgetary needs. They offer a large variety of items to choose from; from park tickets to in room celebrations, from specialty cruises to meal plans, and everything in between.

Once you have completed your registry, you are able to share it with your guests. People are able to gift as soon as the site is live. It does give them the option of "hiding" their gift until the big day-meaning you will see that someone purchased one of the gifts, but not who purchased it. Guests are also able to write well wishes to you. 

I'm sure you are wondering...how do we get the funds? They offer the option to either mail you a check with the funds or to do an online transfer of the funds from their site to your bank account. Since our honeymoon was 3 weeks after our wedding, our trip had to be paid off prior to our wedding. We were able to use the funds we received to reimburse our card that we paid on. 

Using the Disney Honeymoon Registry was quite simple and allowed for an alternative to the every day household items that are asked for on wedding registries. 

Below are more images from our registry.

A Disney Wedding!

Inspired by posts I've been seeing on Instagram, as well as the new Disney Fairytale Weddings series on Freeform, I'm sharing how we incorporated a love of Disney (read: MY love of Disney) into our wedding. Having been with me for 7 years prior to getting married, my husband was well aware of my love of Disney. Knowing how happy Disney makes me, he was more than willing to incorporate Disney touches into our wedding. I began figuring out what I wanted as any bride would: by consulting Pinterest.

our wedding pinterest board

As our ideas came together, I then turned to my husband-to-be to take all of my ideas and create them into something fantastic. He is a graphic designer, so we were able to create many things in-house, inspired by things seen on Pinterest and Etsy. What we weren't able to create ourselves, we were able to get from designers on Etsy.

This was the basis of the design throughout our invitations, inspired by multiple designs seen on Pinterest. We also incorporated Disney font into the design.

Within my bouquet, my mother incorporated the Mr and Mrs Disney pins. She also up-cycled a plain secondhand ring bearer pillow into this Disney pillow. 

Take a closer look at the yellow flowers in the middle...a hidden Mickey!

My brother-in-law gave this to my husband in tribute to their uncle, my husband's godfather. Grumpy was his favorite character. 

For our table decorations, we incorporated rose petals (from Beauty and the Beast) with a centerpiece of a Disney couple, which doubled as our table identifier. There were coloring pages and crayons at each table of different Disney couples. We also had small packages of butter mints, wrapped in black, red, and yellow packaging. 

Both our cake topper and our guest book were purchased through shops on Etsy. 

This may have been one of my favorite DIY pieces from our wedding...and a perfect card holder too!

Along with Disney touches in the designs, we also incorporated Disney music into our reception. Our first dance song was to the song "All for Love" by Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting, from the 1993 film The Three Musketeers (if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.) We also utilized a playlist of Disney songs for our dollar dance.
--"You'll Be in My Heart" from Tarzan
--"Beauty and the Beast"
--"Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from The Lion King
--"Married Life" from Up
--"A Whole New World" from Aladdin
--"Kiss the Girl" from The Little Mermaid
--"Bella Notte" from Lady and the Tramp
--"Once Upon a Dream" from Sleeping Beauty
--"So This is Love" from Cinderella

Overall, after talking with our guests, we felt that while we had a very Disney wedding, it was done in a tasteful, not over the top way, which is what we were going for.

To read more about other ways people incorporated some Disney magic into their special day, check out these posts from WDW Radio.

Disney Details on your Wedding Day pt. 1
Disney Details on your Wedding Day pt. 2 <----there may be some things you recognize ;)
Disney Details on your Wedding Day pt. 3
Ultimate Disney Wedding Song Playlist

Time to Eat! a Review of Be Our Guest

One of my favorite Disney movies of all time is Beauty and the Beast. So when I found out that the Fantasyland expansion would have Beast's castle with a restaurant inside, I was stoked. In both 2015 and 2016, I was able to get lunch reservations for Be Our Guest, and let me tell you, it was amazing. From the theming to the food, I loved it.

Be Our Guest offers Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. I have personally only had lunch at Be Our Guest, so that is what I will talk about. Lunch is considered "counter service" as far as dining plans go. However, because of its popularity, a reservation is a must. When you arrive at Be Our Guest, you are ushered to a queue area where you go by knight uniforms (during the dinner time, this area is utilized as a meet and greet for Beast). Once you round the corner, you encounter a multitude of stations with touch screens for you to order your food. After you've ordered your food and tapped your Magic Band (for those without a Magic Band, they provide "roses") you then venture into the dining area. Be Our Guest does also offer the option to order ahead of time. This option does expedite your entrance into the restaurant. Instead of going down the queue area with the knights, you proceed straight to a cast member, who verifies your order and asks if any changes need made.

The digital screen to order from. Don't worry-a cast member is available if you need assistance

There are three different dining rooms available during the lunch period. The largest of these areas is the ballroom...yes *the* ballroom...the one where Beast twirls Belle around as Mrs. Potts serenades them with the Oscar-winning song "Beauty and the Beast". There is also the West Wing (complete with ripped painting of Prince Adam and the Rose) and the Castle Gallery, a room filled with different paintings and giant dancing figurines of Belle and Beast. Find yourself a table (and trust me when I say, the first one you find you should take, as most of them are full a majority of the time) and have a seat. Through the power of Disney magic (or in reality, RFID technology within the Magic Band) your food is brought to you.

 The ballroom

The Rose Gallery  

The West Wing

Now for the food...

The food at Be Our Guest is amazing. It does have a french flair to it (after all, Beauty and the Beast is set in France), but even a picky eater can find something amazing to eat. I have gotten the Croque Monsieur, which is a grilled ham sandwich with gruyere cheese and bechamel, served with pommes frites (french fries). I've also tried a bite or two of the braised pork, which is slow cooked and served with mashed potatoes and green beans jardiniere, which was also amazing. However, my favorite thing on the menu is The Master's Cupcake. It is a chocolate sponge cupcake served with the grey stuff on top. Try it; it's delicious!

 The Braised Pork with the Triple Chocolate Cupcake

The Croque Monsieur with the Master's Cupcake

The Master's Cupcake topped with the Grey Stuff. It's delicious!

Be Our Guest has been open since late 2012 and continues to be highly sought after reservations for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Being able to step into the movie is so magical. The food is delicious. If you're able to, try for a reservation! It's worth it.