March of the First Order

The March of the First Order is a show is a new experience at Disney World's Hollywood Studio. Hollywood Studios is going through a transformation as it builds Star Wars Land (expected to be completed in 2022) to coincide with yearly realeases of Star Wars movies.

The First Order, a special group of Storm Troopers, was introduced in the movie Episode VII released in 2015.

The experience has the storm troopers March from the back area of the park an area in front of the Great Movie Ride (where the Sourcer's hate used to be). The storm troopers March around and  then March back from where they came. 

The die hard Dtar Wars fan will likely go nuts when they see Storm Troopers marching right in front of them.

Second Ride Mechanism for Toy Story Mania

Toy Story Mania is one of the most popular rides at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Guests board a car and get to play carnival style games with a Toy Story theme. It is common for the stand-by line to stretch several hours!

We approached the ride this and, as often is the case, the ride was broke down. Luckily, only the old track was broke - the new track was still working!

At fifty percent capacity, it was a very long wait.

The new ride track works exactly as the old with all the same games and challenges. This was a great and very welcomed change!

Haunted Mansion is Cloaked

Don't worry - the Haunted mansion ride at Disney World's Magic Kingdom

is still open for business. But it sure doesn't look like it!

The outside is covered in a giant tarp!

I imagine they are doing some kind of referb to the outside of the facility. The work on the outside has no negative impact to the haunting occurring on the inside!

Carousal of Progress Shouldn't be Updated

The Carousal of Progress at the Magic Kingdom is a Disney fan favorite. Guess sit in a theater where their auditorium moves around a stage, pausing at intervals to hear a story. Each story takes place at a different time in the 20th century where the audience learns a little about life at that time from automatronic (robots that look like  humans). As the story progresses we see how life has improved since the turn of the 20th century.

We start at the turn of the century, then the 1920's, 1950's and finally the 1990's. 

Many believe the 1990's needs to be updated to something that reflects modern times. But I disagree.

The story should remain a story about the advancements of the 20th century. 

The leap from the 1950's to 1990's is a huge jump already. Adding another 20 or 30 years would seem ridiculous.

Suppose we did want to add the modern time. What would it look like? A family sitting around a living room silently playing their devices? No narration, no background music. Just look at this family gazing deeply into their devices for 5 minutes?  I don't think that would be very entertaining.

So, I suggest the ride does not get updated. Leave it alone! Let it talk about the optimism of the 20th century and the great big beautiful tomorrow it promised.

Keep your hands inside the ride!

If you have been to Disney? You can probably recite it word for word: keep your hands, arms and legs inside the ride and supervise your children.

Fingers and hands have been lost when this rule isn't followed. 

We were on the Its A Small World ride when I noticed a problem in the boat in front of us. There were parents with three children under the age of 9. The husband was on one side, lost in the ride. His wife was next to him with a sleeping child in her arms. Their two remaining kids, a son and daughter, sat on the outside edge and were fighting. The daughter kept dipping her hand into the water so she could throw it at her brother. The brother, in return, would squirt his sister with a squirt gun.

I started to freek out as I saw her hand repeatedly dip between the boat and the track that kept the boat on track. If the boat were to slap the track while her hand were in the water? It would be tragic!

I tried calling to the boat in front of us, but nobody could hear me. Finally, my wife just told me to look away.

Thankfully, the ride ended and the girl did not get injured. 

Please! Supervise your children! And keep your hands inside the ride!

Our Disney Tickets For 2016

If you are a Disney fan, then you know the price of Disney tickets have become insane! A one day pass is now over $100.








We have gone to Disney once or twice every year since 2009, and many times before then. We have done Disney and enjoy the activities. But do we really need to go to Disney every day that we are in Florida?








Last year, we decided to do an experiment. Our yearly pass expired half way through our vacation. Rather than renew the yearly pass, we decided to front-load the trip with Disney and then find other things to do for the several weeks of the remaining trip. We still went to Disney during those weeks, but we did "free" things: Disney Springs, resorts, etc.  The rest of the time, we enjoyed our villa, the surrounding towns, and the myriad of other things to do. This decision saved us thousands of dollars.








When anyone renews their yearly pass, they receive a discount. If you let the yearly pass lapse, you lose that discount. Returning in 2016, we were faced with purchasing the full cost of Disney Yearly passes which, for our family, is around $3,000!






I said "wait a minute... how many times are we going to Disney?" During our 2015 trip, we found many non-Disney park things to do that we loved and wanted to repeat. We found other non-Disney park things we wanted to do during this trip as well. While we were going to be near Disney for five weeks, we were actually only going into the parks for 12 days. With the annual pass, that would be $250 per trip into the park.






"Can we get that down to 10 days instead of 12?" I asked. My wife and I worked on the schedule and re-arranged everything. If we could get it down to 10 days, we could get a 10-day pass and save $1600 (minus parking charges). In fact, with our Disney Visa Reward points, we could almost get that 10-day pass for free!






So, we did it. We only purchased a 10 day pass this year. All ten days must be used within 14 consecutive calendar days. But that's fine! We decided, again, to front-load this trip with Disney park, and put everything else we want to do for the weeks at the end of the trip. Perfect! And we saved a ton of money!!

Disney Quest Remains Open Until 2017 (at least)

Last year, I reported that Disney Quest was going to close in 2016. The location at Disney Springs (aka Downtown Disney) would be transformed into an NBA experience. My family is a large user of Disney Quest, and this news hit us hard. Our plan was to go to Disney Quest throughout the summer of 2015, however, Disney refused to sell any extended passes.

Rumor has it that the NBA wanted to knock down the Disney Quest building and construct something new. Disney Quest is right in a major location, so, Disney told them 'no'. The NBA then demanded Disney pay from remodeling the existing structure. Again Disney told them 'no'. So, the NBA pulled out of the deal sometime in late 2015. Or, so the rumor goes.


This is great news for my family because it means we can go to Disney Quest this year!

We searched around for prices and couldn't find any. Apparently Disney isn't interested in making it convenient to visit. We talked with a concierge and learned the tickets were a steep $47 per person. Yikes! He then told us that tickets were half priced after 5pm. That is still expensive, but, much easier on my wallet.

Sometime this trip we will fit in a trip to Disney Quest!