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Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort Edible Art Easter Egg Display Will Amaze
Photos From the Parks
Behind the Gates at Disney’s Golden Oak: Private Resident Clubhouse
Continuing in the Golden Oak series, today we take a tour of the rest of the Summerhouse private resident clubhouse. Well, most of it. I’m saving the best for last. With Tyler’s lounge and Markham’s restaurant taking up most of the right side of Summerhouse, the left side contains the entertainment and recreation area and fitness center.
As you enter Summerhouse, to the left is the Resident Services area, and straight ahead a little reception area with refreshments. Then to the left is the impressive great room style entertainment area and behind that, the locker rooms and gym. Let’s take a stroll…
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Nightime Magic at Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival
The 20th annual Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival has really outdone itself this year with the addition of dining and drinking options at 12 booths around the World Showcase. In addition, there are some special nighttime effects for many of the topiaries, making the Festival a must-visit, day and night. I was so enchanted by a few of these displays, I had to create a special post to share the photos I took at night. I hope you enjoy the gallery of nighttime magic at the Flower and Garden Festival!
Click to enter a slideshow of the images below:
Which display is your favorite at night? Mine is definitely Tinker Bell and Periwinkle – the fairy music playing in the background is the perfect touch!
Make sure you see our other posts on the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival!
Instagram Lets You Create and Enjoy Insta-Disney!
Well, my personal opinion is that, as a local, I may have taken approximately 1971 photos of Cinderella Castle, and while it never gets old for me, I like to shake things up. Instagram and other photo apps make it easy and fun to focus on one castle spire, or close-up on the clock, do a tilt-shift of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, all sorts of FUN stuff. And, within the Instagram app lies a whole other community, connected by hashtags and common friends, of people that support and enjoy photos as much as you do. It really is a wonderful place. And you can in turn share the photos you create on Instagram over on twitter or Facebook or tumblr or even Flickr and Foursquare. It’s so easy. (And I mentioned fun, right?) One note of caution: many people feel like using social networks in the parks can lead to missing out on what’s going on around you. As someone who is guilty of that, I’ve come up with a sort of solution. I will take photos along the way, but still enjoy everything that’s happening and not get too engrossed in my phone. Then later, when we stop for a break, I’ll edit and post the photos then. It makes for a nice balance where you aren’t spending the entire visit with your head down in your phone.
Over time, I’ve downloaded quite the collection of photo editing apps, for making photos pop or adding some sparkles here and there, and it’s become quite an art form in its own right. Of course other times I just want to share a photo of my cat or my kids being silly. That’s the great part about Instagram, there are no rules. Another great part of the Instagram community are the hashtags, just like on twitter using a tag like this: #disney will allow you to find lots of other photos using that tag, and ensure your photo is seen by more people. It’s also fun to go back and look at hashtags later on and relive the memories you created. My friends, family and I have taken to using “#widdlebabygio” every time we post a photo of my youngest – just looking back on that set of photos puts a huge smile on my face. The use of hashtags then leads to other fun stuff, like photo challenges.
Our hashtag for this challenge is #WhimsicalDisneyGram and there you can see all of the daily topics and the photos participants have created. February just started and we’ve already seen some amazing content! So if you haven’t tried Instagram before, give it a go, you just may fall in love! And if you’re already up there, look me up – I’m @zannaland, Nicole is @sparklynicole and you’ll find so many other Disney friends there too! Nicole and I would love to have you take part in our February photo adventure, with more to come each month! No pressure, just drop in and out as you please, and have fun!
I hope to see you ‘gramming soon!
PHOTO TOUR of the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights!
Walking around the corner at Disney’s Hollywood Studios onto New York Street and seeing the overwhelming amount of holiday lights displayed at the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights is one of those must-do moments for me, that takes my breath away every year. If I could figure out a way to move into one of those Brownstones on the street, I would pack up in a heartbeat. Heck, I’d even live above the T.P. Tree! 😉 It is such a gift that Disney gives us each year, the beautiful lights, the music, a way to pause and enjoy the wonder and spirit of the season. It’s impossible not to go home happy.
I have so many wonderful memories tied into these lights – with my dad, who loved them as much as I do and loved the Studios too, my mom, as we tear up remembering the times with my dad, my older kids when they were little – I can still picture my now almost-14-year-old son sitting in his stroller, reaching his hand out to catch the “snow” as it fell, and now my youngest gets to experience it all as well and more and more memories are made each year. The past few years I’ve added memories with friends and other locals too. It’s just such a great place to wander and hang out. No parades or fireworks to line up for, just relax and enjoy the sights and sounds that envelope you at every turn.
So without further ado, lets take a look at some highlights from my most recent visit:
Inside the Chase Visa Lounge at Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival
Chase is one of the main sponsors of Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival, and this year they are offering something special for Chase cardholders. Located behind the Ghirardelli Chocolate Experience, the lounge is reserved exclusively for Chase debit and credit Cardmembers. Simply show your card to a Cast Member for access. Inside, cardholders can enjoy a refreshment or just relax between trips around the World Showcase for the 17th annual Food and Wine Festival.
The stripes giveaway that this was once part of the whole circus theme enjoyed by the VIP lounges within the former Wonders of Life pavilion. The circus colors may have been toned down here and in the Wonders VIP lounge and Carousel Room upstairs, but they stand as a reminder of what once was at EPCOT Center.
This is a wonderful addition to the Festival and, I hope, one that returns each year. It’s the perfect combination of what every guest wants, a free drink, a place to charge your phone, and a comfy chair in the air conditioning. The interactive map was really fun to play with too. A+ to Chase and Disney!
Photo Tour of Be Our Guest Restaurant With Quick Serve Areas!
Over the weekend, you may have seen the buzz about the Magic Kingdom’s New Fantasyland opening up with a “Dress Rehearsal” of its completed areas. I’ll have many more photos to come if you missed some of my Instagrams on Twitter or Facebook, but I thought I’d start with some of the Be Our Guest Restaurant, since it is such a highly anticipated new dining location and boy, does it live up to its hype as far as appearances go.
The Walt Disney Imagineers have done an amazing job of bringing the classic Beauty and the Beast animated movie we all know and love, to life. We see familiar creatures and architectural details as well as some new interpretation of how Beast’s home would look. The details and tiny surprises are just perfect and will provide hours of enjoyment as something new is discovered each visit.
Be Our Guest Restaurant opens to the public on November 19. You can find menu info and more over at The Disney Food Blog.
See the wonder for yourself:
I hope you enjoyed the photo tour, I’ll have many more photos of New Fantasyland to come in the next few days. The photos above are free to share, but if you do, please provide a link back to zannaland.com. Thank you!
Little Mermaid Section Photos & Review at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
On my recent tour of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, I also checked out the newest area, the Little Mermaid section. These rooms are the traditional “value” rooms seen in other resorts, not the family suites or “value plus” experience found in the Finding Nemo, Cars, and Lion King buildings. The rooms here start at $94/night vs. the $248/night starting price for the family suite rooms. Having noted that, when I visited the Little Mermaid section, I was a bit disappointed – relatively speaking.
On its own, the Little Mermaid fits right into the All-Star and Pop-themed buildings. However, down the road from the Cars buildings, there is just no comparison. Here we are met with giant and I mean GIANT characters and props from the film. When you first walk in, you have two photo ops, a very over-sized Dinglehopper and an even larger Snarfblat. Sure, they are familiar icons from the film, but why so big? Does this mean we have been shrunk to krill-size creatures upon entering this area? That would be plausible if we didn’t then happen upon the statue of Prince Eric which Ariel keeps in her grotto. It is slightly over-sized, but for the most part, on par with how it looks in the movie. Then to your right is a behemoth-sized Ursula and an equally towering King Triton. It is almost impossible to make characters that huge not look deranged somehow…and these are no exception. Also, with no interior doors and hallways, the buildings are also covered with 2-D cut outs of fish from the film and bubbles, which are a far cry from the expertly themed buildings in the rest of the resort.
Again, I get that it’s in keeping with the super-sized theme that the other value resorts are known for, but when you feel actually immersed over in the Cars section, it’s just hard not to wonder what the other buildings would’ve been like with those same rules applied. Perhaps it is because the Cars section is so wonderful that it stands out on its own and is the one out of place. I will say that I enjoy the details that are present, like the ship’s mast and crows nest themed light posts along the walkways, and the attempt at a beachy/underwater landscaping mix. I would just personally prefer to stay in the Cars or Lion King section, were I to stay in this resort. We’ll see inside a Cars section room in a later post, and I’ll also discuss the dining options and other resort information in the coming weeks. Until then, with my opinions out of the way, let’s take a look at the Little Mermaid buildings:
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What are your thoughts on the Little Mermaid buildings? Will you choose this section of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort over other value resort options?
Inside Disney’s Art of Animation Resort-Lion King Room Photo Tour
After my initial tour of Disney’s new Art of Animation Resort, which has opened in phases, the last two buildings, Lion King and Little Mermaid are now open. I thought I’d venture back over and tour the new areas to share here with you. In addition to the exterior of the Lion King and Little Mermaid buildings, I was able to tour a Cars and Lion King room. I’ll be sharing the other photos in subsequent posts, but for now, let’s check out a Lion King family suite and its surrounding buildings.
Before I share the photos, a quick note about all of the buildings at Art of Animation. When I first saw the property back in April, what I was most impressed with were the tiny details. In the Finding Nemo section, it was the landscaping, made to look like you were actually under the sea, along with things like the swim mask featured in the film, famously marked with “P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney”. The giant sea creatures were fun for the kids, but it was those details that really made the theming work for me. The rooms were also pretty and full of muted colors like you saw in the movie.
By far my favorite section was Cars. It was as if you were walking into a less-vast Radiator Springs. After visiting Disney California Adventure and seeing the “real” version of Cars Land, of course this area cannot compare, however it’s an excellent second place. What makes it so great is the perspective. You see the cars, properly-sized, as you would in the film and you feel as if you are a part of the town. The landscaping, again, is a key detail, painting a desert scene in keeping with Radiator Springs. You’ve got the Cozy Cone motel and other landmarks that are again, properly sized so it feels natural. The rooms inside are in keeping with this theme and, I think, a nice mix of racing vs. Radiator Springs decor. We’ll see photos of the rooms in an upcoming post.
The Lion King buildings sort of straddle the line between the over-sized Finding Nemo and (as we’ll also see in later) Little Mermaid rooms and the proper perspective of the Cars section. The Lion King statues are bigger than life-sized, but not so huge that it feels just silly and not at all realistic. I like the unique layout of the Lion King buildings, with the famous “Hakuna Matata” log that Simba, Pumba and Timon dance across in the movie and the Elephant Graveyard where the three hyenas, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed are found. Of course all of the wonderfully detailed scenes are riddled with “Please Do Not Climb” signs, which will probably make this a battleground for cast members trying to protect guests and those guests hoping to get that really cool photo from their vacation. I do love the lush look of the building entrances and the overall fun but not too over-the-top theme of the Lion King buildings. Later I’ll discuss the Little Mermaid buildings and my thoughts on their theming. Now, onto the photos!
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What do you think of the Art of Animation Resort in general? What about the new Lion King section? Share your favorite details in the comments below:
Guest Post: Tom Bricker Shares Spectacular Highlights From Cars Land
I’m so pleased to have Tom Bricker back sharing his amazing photo skills and some highlights from his recent visit to the grand opening of Cars Land at Disney California Adventure. Please welcome Tom again and enjoy his post below:
Cars Land at Disney California Adventure is quite possibly the most beautiful land in any Disney theme park, and is definitely the most immersive. As soon as you set foot in Cars Land, you feel as if you’ve exited Disney California Adventure and stepped foot onto Route 66 in the Pixar film, Cars. Words certainly do not do the beauty of this amazing new land justice, and even photos barely do it justice. That said, I’ll try to do justice to the jaw-dropping beauty of Cars Land by sharing some photos I’ve taken of this all-new land.
If these photos piqued your interest in Cars Land, make sure to check out my Cars Land photos and Radiator Springs Racers photos, where you can view hundreds of additional photos of Cars Land and its flagship attraction, Radiator Springs Racers! Are you thinking about booking a trip to Disneyland Resort to experience Cars Land? Have you already experienced it? Share your thoughts in the comments!
