In our household, March always means Colorado Dad’s annual trip to California for the big Expo he works on. Since it’s in Anaheim right across the street from Disneyland, it also typically means that Colorado Dad spends at least an evening visiting the park “solo”. However, last year, he and Colorado Boy took a “boys only” trip the weekend before the Expo began and it marked the first time that Colorado Boy flew solo (on his way home), so for my contribution to this week’s blog hop, I’m sharing a photo that commemorates that very special trip. And yes, “Caution!” probably does sum him up pretty well

Thanks to Deb at Focused on the Magic for hosting another great Disney Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop! Make sure to click through to see posts from all the other “hoppers” this week.

If you’ve cruised before, but have been on less than 5 cruises, you’re considered a Silver Castaway Club member and can book excursions and onboard activities starting 90 days before the cruise. For us, that’s a week from today, so I’ve been doing a lot of research and I think I’ve narrowed everything down. But, after 4 cruises, I still worry about how things are going to work out, so I thought I’d share some tips I’ve learned about booking port excursions for those of you who are new to cruising.  These are based 100% on our experience and may or may not work in your family’s particular situation

You don’t have to book excursions at all
If you look at the Disney marketing material and website a lot, you might get the sense that you HAVE to book a port adventure to have ANY fun on your cruise. Sure, the excursions are fun and we’ve always had a great time, but you can also have just as much fun exploring a port all on your own, or, even staying onboard the ship during a port day. We did Cabo on our own and had a great time, exploring the city and then taking a boat over to one of the beaches for WAY cheaper than any of the excursions we looked at. It was quite relaxing and we didn’t feel like we were missing out at all. If we ever do another cruise to the Bahamas, I already plan on just relaxing on the ship the day we’re in Nassau because I was just not a big fan. Fewer people onboard during a port day means more lounger space by the pool!

You don’t HAVE to book port excursions through Disney
A lot of new cruisers may not realize that you don’t HAVE to book one of the Disney port adventures if you don’t want to. Almost everything that Disney provides as an excursion is available to book privately, sometimes at a cheaper cost or with different options. If you see a Disney excursion that looks interesting but isn’t quite what you want, look around to see if you can find it elsewhere. Conversely, if you find a private tour that’s similar to the Disney one, but much cheaper, just verify exactly what you get. The Disney excursions typically include transportation to and from the port and may include “extras” like snacks or lunch that may not be provided in the private tour price. Do your research to find out what option is going to be best for you and your family.

If you go with an external vendor, have a plan and keep track of time
There are always unexpected things that can happen when you’re in port – traffic on the island can be horrible, like it was for us when we went to St. Thomas, or a sudden rainstorm can hit you when you least expect it. If you’re on a Disney-led excursion, the ship is much more likely to wait for you if something delays your return. If you’re on a private excursion, there’s no guarantee they’ll wait, and although it is VERY rare, the ship has had to leave without all it’s passengers a few times. If you only have a short time in a port, you might just go with a Disney excursion to be safe, but no matter what, at least have a plan for emergencies and leave yourself PLENTY of time to get back to the ship before the all aboard call.

Try something different
If there’s ever a time to try something a little out of your comfort zone, I feel like a Disney cruise is the time to do it, especially if you’re looking at doing a Disney-led excursion. Last year on our Mexican Riviera cruise, we did a ziplining tour and an ATV tour – both of which I’d never imagine I would do and I had a GREAT time. Disney takes safety very seriously and if anything goes wrong on the excursions they offer, they are quick to follow up and make sure everything is ok. I know from personal experience after I, um, sort of, flipped my ATV and got a little banged up. Sure I was shaken up and a little sore after the experience, but even now, I’d do it all over again if I had the opportunity, although I’ll be a little more tame on our Alaska cruise since the kiddos will be with us when we head into port!

Book early 
If you’re booking a Disney-led excursion and it’s a popular one, book it as soon as your booking window opens because there are limited spots available and they can fill up quickly. They do say you might be able to add or change an excursion once you’re onboard, but there’s no guarantee, so if you want to do it, book it. All of the Disney port excursions are listed on the Disney Cruise website and there are tons of resources, like the DisBoards, where people share their reviews and experiences on the various excursions. Do your homework ahead of your booking window so you know what things you’re interested in doing.

Those are just a few of the things we’ve learned and I’ll continue to provide additional tips in the next couple weeks about planning your onboard activities, so stay tuned for those! And, if you have any questions I can answer, leave me a comment, I’m happy to help!

This week’s Blog Hop theme is Disney in the Details and on my most recent trip to Disneyland, I took some pictures of what I think is a perfect example of a Disney detail.

Below are two examples of the “popcorn popper men” that are in all the popcorn carts around the park. Each are themed appropriated to their particular location. Can you figure out where these two are?

Thanks to Deb at Focused on the Magic for hosting another great Disney Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop! Make sure to click through to see posts from all the other “hoppers” this week.

One of the hottest pieces of Disney news I’ve heard recently is about FASTPASS return times being enforced at Walt Disney World starting in March. Certainly this is going to put a dent into our tried and true touring methods and it’s going to be interesting to see how it all shakes out. But, outside of FASTPASS, there is another option that might help some of you, so I thought I would share it with you today.

A few years ago, Colorado Dad and I were on a solo trip to Disneyland and we were standing at the entrance trying to decide if we wanted to wait in line or get a FASTPASS for a much later return. As we were discussing it, I looked over and saw this sign

“Single Riders?” We went over to investigate and at that point learned about one of our favorite tips for busy park touring.

On a few busy attractions (the list is below), there are  “Single Rider lines” which basically allow people who are riding “solo” to go through a separate entrance for a typically quicker wait time. Why does Disney do this? Well, have you ever heard an attraction CM call out to people waiting in line to see if there are any singles or couples waiting? When they do that, they’re trying to be as efficient in loading a ride vehicle as possible, which means they want to fill every seat if they can. Providing a single rider line makes that whole process easier because the CMs can just pick individual people out of that line to fill in space as necessary.

So, this is pretty cool, but before you run out to your nearest Disney park and start searching for those single rider lines, there are a few things you should know:

• “Single” means one – While it’s perfectly fine for a group touring together to use the single rider line, just know that you WILL be split up. And, please, don’t get upset with the CM when this happens
• The Single Rider Line doesn’t guarantee faster access – While it’s true that riding solo will typically get you onto the attraction faster, it is not guaranteed. Sometimes it just works out that there are correct guest numbers in the regular line and singles aren’t needed. Be patient.
• Check-in with the CMs before entering the Single Rider Line – Single Rider Lines are handled slightly differently for each attraction, so make sure you check in with the Cast Member at the entrance to the attraction to find out what to do. Many times you’ll be handed a “Single Rider” card that you will need to give a Cast Member further along – don’t lose it.
• Don’t confuse “Baby Swap” with “Single Rider” – If you travel to Disney with kids, you may have heard of the “baby swap” option, allowing you all to stand in line and then “swap” adults so that everyone gets to ride without having to stand in line twice. “Single Rider” is completely different and should not be used as a “baby swap” option unless you’re comfortable with your “baby” riding by themselves

Ok, so with those tips out of the way, here’s the list of attractions that currently have single rider lines. While I haven’t seen changes to these in a while, you never know when something’s going to change, so it’s best to check when you’re at the park.

Disneyland - Indiana Jones Adventure and Splash Mountain

Disney California Adventure - California Screamin’, Goofy’s Sky School, Grizzly River Run and Soarin’

Disney’s Animal Kingdom - Expedition Everest

Disney’s Hollywood Studios - Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster

EPCOT - Test Track (at least until April/May when it closes for a re-imagining, which you can learn about on the Disney Parks Blog)

Colorado Dad and I have used this technique quite a bit in the years since we first learned about it. Sometimes we use it when we’re traveling solo and have limited time to tour the parks, but we’ve also used it quite a bit when we’re traveling with the kids and neither one of them has any desire to ride (like in the case of Splash Mountain, which Colorado Boy has declared he won’t go on until he’s 21 )

Happy touring!

Last week, I shared a picture of that rare and fleeting moment known as “sibling love”, so for this week’s blog hop theme of “Love is in the air”, I thought I’d turn the camera on myself (very rare since I’m usually behind the camera) and share a couple of pics of me and the love of my life – Colorado Dad (I almost typed Mickey Mouse there. Hehehehe!)

This first pic is from the “Wayback Machine” known as 1998 and is from our first Disney trip together as husband and wife. This was our honeymoon cruise on the Disney Magic, circa Sept. 1998.

Disney Fan and Colorado Dad - Honeymoon, Sept. 1998

And by contrast, here we are again, almost 13 years later. Less hair, more gray and with a couple additions to our family, but still going strong after all these years

Disney Fan and Colorado Dad - Palo on the Disney Wonder, April 2011

Thanks to Deb from Focused on the Magic for hosting the weekly hop! Click on the image below to see some other great Disney pictures in this week’s Wordless Wednesday blog hop!

I’ll admit, many of our Disney vacations have consisted of my family and I flitting from one attraction or character to the next,  barely stopping for a bite to eat unless we have an ADR at a sitdown restaurant. And bathroom breaks? No way! The kids just have to wait until we get back to the hotel! Ok, ok, I’m not really THAT bad, but I have been known to zip through the parks without really giving much thought to what we were seeing and doing. A few years ago, after we started visiting at least one Disney park a year, I realized that I didn’t HAVE to rush around to fit everything in, and that’s when I really started “experiencing” Disney.

Disney is famous for all the little details they put into their parks and if you slow down, you’re much more likely to see those things, and they will most likely make your experience that much better. But, even though I truly LOVE the little details, I think the thing that has really helped me “experience” the Disney magic more than anything else is talking to Cast Members. While you may run into someone having a bad day here and there, the vast majority of Cast Members love to spend a few minutes with you and often have great stories to tell.

During our vacation to Disneyland a few weeks ago, my husband let me head over to the park early to get some pictures while he fed the kids breakfast and got them ready for our day in the park. I got some shots of Main Street and then headed into the Fortuosity Shop to see what new watches they had in stock. I’m coveting one of the one-of-a-kind watches you can purchase, so I was hanging out over by the Artist’s Chair looking at some of the options. Charles, the artist-in-residence for the day wished me a good morning and called me by my first name (I was wearing a nametag from the D23 Expo on my lanyard), so we started talking about how observant Cast Members are and how he has learned to pick up people’s names as they browse in the store. That somehow lead into talking about his hometown back in Nebraska (which sounds an awful lot like a real-life Main Street!) and ended up back at the drawing his was working on when I walked in – the boat scene from Tangled, which I mistakenly thought was the Little Mermaid “Kiss the Girl” scene. While I didn’t purchase a watch from Charles that day, I thoroughly enjoyed our 15 minutes or so together and will keep an eye out for him the next time I visit.

After getting my Main Street pictures, I wandered over to the Tiki Room and struck up a conversation with Phil. We first started talking about pins and how it’s getting harder and harder to detect fake pins but that he has been doing it for so long that he kind of has a “sixth sense” about it. Did you know there are Cast Members who are designated as “Master Pin Traders” because of their experience? Well, there are, and Phil is one of them – go to him if you want an opinion on a pin you’ve traded for. There’s NOT a 100% fool-proof method to know for sure, but Phil can give you a pretty good idea. As we were talking he noticed my camera and asked if I was taking pictures of anything particular. I explained that I am just getting started with photography and still trying to learn. So, even though he was in the middle of setting up the queue ropes for the next show, he took a few minutes to take me through the entire loading area to show me some great vantage points for some nice tiki pictures as well as info on what time of day to come back to get the PERFECT shots. The light wasn’t quite right that day, so my pictures aren’t stellar, but I will definitely keep his advice in mind and will be back to shoot Pele just as the sun hits her exactly right. Thanks for the tips, Phil!

And finally, my favorite interaction from the entire trip. We were waiting for Mickey’s Soundsational parade to begin and the kids were starting to get a little antsy/crabby. A Cast Member noticed Colorado Princess in her Belle dress and came over to talk to her . We started chatting and found out that she has 17 grandkids. And they are ALL boys, so she doesn’t get a lot of “princess” time at home. As we were talking, she started edging over to Colorado Dad, reached into her pocket and quietly pressed something into his hand. Then, reached into her other pocket and put something else in his hand. She looked at Colorado Dad and I and said something to the effect that she can’t give things out to everyone, although she wishes she could. At this point, I was dying to know what she had given Colorado Dad, but I held back until she walked away to finish her pre-parade duties. I leaned over to see what it was and found that she had given Colorado Princess a small glass slipper. And for Colorado Boy, a Disneyland Resort pin with Dumbo on it. Wow, super cool!! Colorado Princess was instantly in love and slept with the slipper in her hand for the rest of the trip. I didn’t even notice the Cast Member’s name (unlike Charles, I am NOT observant ) and we didn’t see her again that night, but we will always remember that little bit of magic she gave us!

This past trip is probably one of my favorites so far and it really is in large part to the Cast Members I met. Not only do these folks go about their “regular” park duties, but they all help contribute to that Disney “magic” that we all love so much. If you haven’t taken the time to chat with a Cast Member on your previous trips, I really suggest you take the time to do so on your next trip – even if only for 5 minutes. Your trip is bound to be enhanced by it!

When I saw that Lisa over at Babes in Disneyland had picked “Favorite Dinner” as this week’s blog hop theme, I originally thought I would write about Jiko, which is my absolute favorite restaurant at a Disney resort (especially for an adults-only dinner). However, while I LOVE Jiko, it’s not on our “must-do” list for every trip. That honor falls to Biergarten in the German pavillion at EPCOT.

For those of you who haven’t been to Biergarten, it’s a buffet-style restaurant themed around a German village in the midst of an Oktoberfest celebration (it’s ALWAYS Oktoberfest at the Biergarten). Tables are arranged around a central stage where a performance is put on about every 30 minutes or so. The tables ARE communal, seating 10 or so guests, so be prepared to share a table if you’re in a smaller party.

The Food
I’ll be honest, the food is hit or miss, although the last two times we’ve been, it’s been pretty good. The buffet is heavy on typical German fare, like sausages, schnitzel, etc., but even my vegetarian mother-in-law was able to find plenty of good food the last time we visited. I’ve always been skeptical about how authentic the food is, but we sat with a couple from Germany two visits ago, and they said it was very similar to what you might find in Germany. My hubby and I both like the beer selection – usually a couple varieties of German beer like Spaten, and while I only do this on rare occasions, they serve liters of beer (yes, that’s a full 32oz glass of beer).

The Entertainment
The big draw for us is the entertainment. There’s a dance floor in front of the stage and everyone is encouraged to come out and dance during the performances. The performance is based around an Oktoberfest celebration, so there’s lots of “oompah” music and you’ll always get a couple rounds of The Chicken Dance in. Our kids LOVE this, but even the adults have fun with it – I actually talked my boss into doing a few rounds of the Chicken Dance when we were there for a conference a few years ago. You’ll also learn the official Oktoberfest toast (ticky tocky, ticky tocky. hoy, hOY, HOY!), which is great fun no matter how little beer you’ve had to drink.

The cast members working here are top notch. We’ve visited every year since 2007 and had the same waitress all but once. The entertainment cast also includes a lot of long-timers who know how to put on a great show. All of our trips to the Biergarten have been great, but I have a few tips that will hopefully make your experience exceptional:

Biergarten Tips

• Make reservations: I have found this to be more and more true as the dining plan gets more popular, but I very rarely hear that people are successful in getting in if they are a walk-up without reservations. Perhaps if you’re visiting during a very low season, but otherwise, I suggest reservations.
• Don’t be shy: I’ll admit, the idea of communal seating was a bit of a turnoff for us the first time we visited the Biergarten, but we’ve actually had some really great experiences meeting and chatting with other Disney guests this way. They also try to seat parties so that you’re sitting as close together at the table as possible so if you want to ignore the other people at your table, you can, although it’s much more fun if you interact.
•  Visit for a late lunch… The buffet is all you can eat, so you might think about having a mid-afternoon lunch so you can take a break from the crowds, eat a hearty meal and then be able to tour the park with shorter lines while everyone else is busy eating at the “normal” dinner time.
• …Or, go toward the end of the night: If you book a reservation at say, 7:30pm you can have a leisurely dinner and then walk straight out the door to get a pretty good viewing of the 9pm Illuminations show. If it’s REALLY busy, this may be harder, but we’ve walked out about 20 minutes before the show and gotten a perfect spot for Illuminations viewing.
• Visit during the Christmas season: Every meal at Biergarten is a reason to celebrate, but during the Christmas season, they really pull out all the stops. The performance is geared more toward Christmas rather than Oktoberfest and includes things like a special telling of the story of Silent Night. Hearing the stories and music really got me into the Christmas spirit when we were there in early Dec. 2007 – even more so than Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas party.

Is Biergarten one of your favorites? Would you rather go somewhere else for your “must-do” dinner? Leave me a comment and let me know what your favorite Disney dinner is!

And, make sure to follow the link below to visit the rest of these week’s particpants in the Babes in Disneyland Blog Hop!

This week’s Disney blog hop theme from Focused on the Magic is “February Calendar Shot”. Although I am pretty much anti-Valentine’s Day, this is the month of love, so I found this great shot of Colorado Princess and Colorado Boy from our recent Disneyland trip. This was totally spontaneous and probably instigated by Colorado Boy who LOVES cuddling with his sister.

Thanks to Deb from Focused on the Magic for hosting the weekly hop! Click on the image below to see some other great Disney pictures in this week’s Wordless Wednesday blog hop!