Category: Reviews


Aug
2013

A peek into Disney Vacation Club’s newest resort, The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

categories: Reviews

DVC 1Disney Vacation Club’s Newest Resort is Almost Done!

As some of you may already know, at one time my husband and I worked for Disney Vacation Club and we are also very happy Disney Vacation Club “Members”.  We own points at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and also own points at our favorite place to stay, Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort.  On August 8th, DVC members were offered a special on-line “First Glimpse” to see “Behind the Grand Design” with Samantha Brown.  After viewing the video, now I want stay there too!  It’s simply stunning.  I’m not going review the resort at this time, as I haven’t stayed there yet, but I do want to tell you about a couple things that really stood out during their presentation.

The Disney character touches found throughout the resort feature Dumbo or Mary Poppins.

Mary Poppins fountain

Located in the Grand Atrium Lobby of The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, you’ll find this Mary Poppins’ Penguin Fountain.  I can’t wait to see it in person!  I found this image on WDW News Today.  They have a few other images you could see of the fountain. This link will take you to their site to view the other photos.

http://wdwnt.com/mary-poppins-penguin-fountain-to-grace-the-villas-at-the-grand-floridian/

The sleeping arrangements are a bit unique in this DVC resort.  They sleep an additional person!  There is a pull down bunk size bed in a studio, so it sleeps five and the 2 bedroom sleeps 9 people.  Check out Disney’s website to see their floor plans.

http://disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com/destinations/resorts/grand-floridian-villas/

The Villa’s at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa are scheduled to open October 2013.  Here are some additional photos of the current state of it’s construction.  My friend, Jodi Diamond, took these photos a few days ago and she so kindly said that I could share them with you!

DVC 2 DVC 3

 

 


Aug
2013

Back to School- Five Fun Disney Book Finds at Walt Disney World

categories: Reviews

Small World Book

This week is all about Back to School!

If your family is like our family, summer’s busy schedule of events and its beautiful sunshine calling us to do something outside, causes book reading to sometimes fall at the bottom of our list to do.   So to begin our week, let’s get back to reading!  I’m going to share with you the most engaging “Disney” books that my family has found while on vacation at Walt Disney World. Some of these books are exclusive to Walt Disney World, while others you could purchase on-line today!

Baby and Toddler

Poohs HoneypotPooh’s Honey Trouble is an adorable “Touch and Feel” book that we found in the shop at the end of the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction.  Each page features a different surface to touch, such as soft, smooth, rough and the last page, my daughter’s favorite, is sticky.

Toddler and Preschool

Small World BookThis Play-a-Sound book, recommended for children 18 months and up, plays the “It’s a Small World” attraction song.  What a wonderful way to remember with your child, their first time they voyaged on the boat in It’s a Small World.  Each two-page spread shows your little reader stylized illustrations that showcase a part of our world that was featured in the attraction and the text on that page teaches them something about a specific city in this part of the world.  The book is simply adorable and kids love to push the buttons.

Early Elementary

Random House offers so many fantastic Step into Reading books featuring an extensive list of Disney branded characters that I would recommend, especially the new “Scaring Lessons” book that’s about our favorite Monster University students. We love to read these before bed time.  In addition to their books, I’d like to tell you about this activity book found exclusive to Disney Parks.

photo (35)

What’s super cool about this activity book, is that the characters from Disney Pixar’s “Cars” are wearing fun Disney Parks hats.  For example, there are two different stencils for Mater in the book.  One of Mater with Goofy ears and the other stencil is of Mater with a Pirates hat.  Not only will you child enjoy creating with this book, but parents could use it to spruce up a scrapbook page.

Ages 10 and above

Fairest of All

Fairest of All tells the untold story of The Evil Queen, before we met her in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”.  Not only would a tween enjoy this book, but I know a few moms that really enjoyed reading it too!

I’d also like to recommend the Kingdom Keepers books.

kingdom keepers
Image taken from the Kingdom Keepers website.

Kingdom Keepers, also recommended for ages 10 and up, is a thrill series were five young teens protect the Disney theme parks again the Disney villains who try to take over the parks. This series has a HUGE following. I’ve only read the first book, but really enjoyed it.   If you’re not in the loop on this yet, check out the series website to learn more.   http://www.thekingdomkeepers.com/

We purchased both Fairest of All and books from the Kingdom Keepers series at Walt Disney World.  However, they are not exclusive to the parks and can be purchased in book stores or on-line.

Are there any books that you purchased for your children at Walt Disney World that you’d recommend for our kids? I’d love to hear your suggestions.

 

 


Aug
2013

“PLANES” movie review

categories: Reviews

planeslogoThere are two different ways that I can review this film, as a mom or as a Disney File, so I’ll do both.

I’ll start this review in my most important role, a mom of a Plane Enthusiast six-year-old boy.  Gavin LOVED this movie.  I can’t express in my writing how much he enjoyed the film.  In his mind, it’s better than Monsters University, better than “other” studios’ summer movie releases, and even better than Pixar’s “Cars”!    From the second the film started, he was smiling, laughing and occasionally whispering something IMPORTANT to me about the film.  The DVD is already on his Christmas List!  I don’t believe he was alone in his thoughts. The theatre was full and this was the 3 pm showing during Friday afternoon.   After the film’s ending, we went to Target to purchase a new plane.  Every single Disney Plane was sold out.  Then we went to Wal-Mart.  They also, were sold out.

Seeing the joy that he received from the film, made me love it too.  The film is overall lighthearted and adorable.  The storyline is really simple for young children to follow.  It does mention planes dying throughout the movie, which was really the only darkness related to the film. Most of the death references were in a joking context and the villain in the film is tame when it comes to Disney villains. The film moves very fast, which keeps the kids attention and the movie length is about an hour and a half.  If you have a young child, three years or older, they’ll love this film.

As a Disney Fanatic, I was disappointed, but not entirely surprised.  I knew that this film was slotted as a direct to DVD release, then after the company saw interest in the film arise, it went into the theatre.  Here’s my overall issue with the movie:  The Disney PIXAR brand has earned the top spot in animation excellence.  Again I want to emphasis, EARNED this spot.  Does Disney truly believe that showing the word DISNEY( without the word PIXAR) in front of the title “PLANES” would lead people to think, “Oh, this isn’t a Disney/Pixar film so I shouldn’t expect it to be that good?  The general public is going to believe it is a Pixar film because of how it’s been marketed so closely with “CARS”. Therefore, viewers may be highly disappointed and in turn it will put a blemish on the Disney/Pixar name.  That bothers me.  The movie wasn’t up to their standards.  The storyline was cute, but not heart capturing.  The character development wasn’t deep enough.  They didn’t spend enough time getting the audience to fall in love with the dozen characters in the film.  It felt like a cheapened version of “CARS”.  Disney animation is always fantastic.  However, after seeing Monsters University just over a month ago, it made this film’s animation appear mediocre.  In my opinion the animation came across as inconsistent.  There were a couple of moments in the film where I said, “OK, now here is the breathtaking animation that I was looking forward to seeing.”  Then they’d show a crowd shot and it was horrible to watch as the planes made the strangest “fan cheering” movements.  I believe that this film could have been spectacular, if it was only given enough time in development.  Bottom line, Disney Toon Studios will most likely be releasing many spin offs in the near future and the animation quality will be sub par to the studios traditional releases.  Hopefully the audience will realize this before Pixar is blemished.

Planes Fire and RescueThe sequel to PLANES, “Planes: Fire & Rescue”, is already in development, with a theatre premiere date of July18, 2014.  My hope is that when they start the “TRAINS” films that they take a little more time and release them under Disney Pixar, instead of Disney Toon Studios.

Regardless of my disappointment, my purse will still be opening to purchased licensed products with Dusty stickers all over it.  He is adorable…

 


Jun
2013

Monsters University Review

categories: Reviews

Monsters UniversityMonsters Inc. is one of my all time favorite films.  Twelve years after it’s theatre release, one would assume that I would be ecstatic to see it’s prequel, Monsters University.  Honestly, until last week, I had not an ounce of interest to see the film.

The Monsters Inc. character of Boo stole my heart from the moment she appeared on the screen in 2001.  I couldn’t imagine a “Monsters” film made without her.  Why would the writers even consider a prequel when a sequel could include her?   Overall, I felt the original was perfect. Why not leave the “Monsters” brand alone?

Disney does a phenomenal job at Marketing.  As I’m sure you would agree, Monsters University “stuff” is EVERYWHERE!  There is TV advertising, on-line advertising, bus wraps, children’s books in the grocery store check-out isle, toys that are front and center in every children’s store, clothing lines that have our one-eyed friend plastered all over them, an entire food product line that Kellogg’s released that is showcasing Monster’s University’s characters, and at a local park’s children’s event,  Disney even sponsored a Monster’s University activity table.  Everywhere I turned, I was bombarded with images of Mike and Sulley.

One small question to my six year old son-  ” What do you think of the new Monsters movie previews?”  and guess who was viewing Monsters University during it’s opening weekend?  I’m thrilled to report it was wonderful.

The film’s story line was as entertaining for my six year old as it was for me.  Being a mom, I was very happy with the lessons on friendship that were taught and the emphasis that was placed on being truthful, to yourself and others.  For those moms’ of children under five, I do want to note that this film was a touch scarier than Monster’s Inc., as there is a huge focus on the MU students attending the Scare Program.  The Disney Dork side of me, LOVED the many, many tie-ins with the original film and of course the guest appearance by John Ratzenberger.  I’m not going to spoil the film for you by telling you all the cool connections between Monsters Inc. and Monsters University but I will say to stay through the credits.  Pixar has a cute little ending that I was glad I had stayed to see.  It will give you an extra chuckle to take home.

Overall, I may not have left the theatre with tears in my eyes, as I did with the original film, but I did leave with a smile on my face and I was happy to have shared Monsters University with my son.