Author: touringplans.com

Spooky sweet treats can be found all around Walt Disney World right now. One of the best ways to enjoy all the tasty fun is to do your own crawl around the monorail resorts. Our team recently did their own monster mash monorail crawl to scope out all the Halloween treats.

Disney’s Contemporary Resort – Halloween Cupcakes

Over at Contempo Cafe you can enjoy monstrous treats with a view of the monorail. Our team tried out the Monster Cupcake, with confetti cake and Candy Bar Custard. As cute as this cupcake is, the Candy Bar Custard’s texture didn’t thrill us. There are two other specialty cupcakes available here too. Each one is $5.99 and available for mobile ordering.

Disney’s Polynesian – Halloween Treats

Hop on over to Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort and Captain Cook’s for two more thrilling Halloween treats. The Minnie Mouse Halloween Cupcake is a hit for chocolate lovers. A chocolate cupcake is filled with Rocky Road filling and topped with buttercream frosting. It’s a marvelous Minnie Mouse creation.

There’s also the Mike Wazowski Dome Cake, a double chocolate cake with white chocolate ganache and buttercream frosting. Lots of sugary sweetness in this one–even the double chocolate cake is on the extra sweet side. We preferred the Minnie Mouse cupcake to this one. Each one is $5.99 and available through mobile ordering.

A Trio of Halloween Treats at Disney’s Grand Floridian

Over at the grandest Disney resort of all, Disney’s Grand Floridian, there are three Halloween treats to finish up our monster mash monorail crawl. Head to Gasparilla Island Grill. We’ll go from zero to hero, starting with the Zero Dog Bone Eclair, in honor of Jack Skellington’s ghost dog Zero. You can skip this one: the eclair was soggy and not very flavorful, a pass for $5.49.

Minnie Mouse gets her own cupcake here at the Grand too, a chocolate cupcake with Cookies and Cream filling, enrobed in chocolate ganache. A chocolate candy witch hat and two cookies for ears top it all off. This is a strong contender for the best cupcake on the crawl, at $5.99.

Our team’s favorite food find of the monster mash monorail crawl is the Jack Skellington Pumpkin Spice Cake Pop. If you can’t get enough pumpkin spice in your life, this is the treat for you. A simply sweet jumbo cake pop is packed with pumpkin spice flavor and enrobed in white chocolate ganache. For $7.99 it is a little pricey, but large enough to share with 2-3 people.

Treat yourself to a TouringPlans Subscription and you won’t miss a beat on your Walt Disney World vacation. Our Lines app includes ratings and rankings of all Walt Disney World dining options, including all three spots featured here in our monster mash monorail crawl.

Have you ever done your own monorail crawl? Tell us about it in the comments. 

The post Do the Monorail Monster Mash – A Halloween Treats Crawl appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: Dining, Dos and Don’ts, Halloween, Resorts, Snacks, Transportation, disney desserts, disney halloween, disney halloween treats, Disney Snacks, disney’s contemporary, disney’s grand floridian, disney’s polynesian, jack skellington, Minnie Mouse

We’ve been highlighting our touring plans which reflect the changes and closures due to social distancing measures and closures due to the ongoing pandemic. Today we move on to our Disney’s Hollywood Studios one-day plan for parents with small children. This plan includes rides that rank high with preschool and grade-school kids. Thrill rides, such as Tower of Terror, are not included. If you are going to use this plan in the park, be sure to arrive at the park at least 40 minutes early and then immediately get in line for Slinky Dog Dash after the park opens.

STEPS
1) Slinky Dog Dash Head to Toy Story Land and ride Slinky Dog Dash. Slinky Dog Dash is a long outdoor children’s roller coaster designed to look as if Andy built it out of Tinkertoys. The trains are themed to Toy Story’s Slinky Dog. As for intensity, it’s something along the lines of the Magic Kingdom’s Barnstormer or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train—lots of turns, dips, and hills but no loops or high-speed curves—and not nearly as rough as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This ride ranks high with all ages.
2) Eat lunch Eat lunch if you’re hungry. If not, eat after riding Runaway Railway.
3) Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway Ride Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. The Runaway Railway ride places you in the center of one of the modern Mickey Mouse cartoons. The premise is, of course, that you’re on an out-of-control railroad car, courtesy of Goofy. You careen, gently, through ten large, cartoon show scenes, from tropical islands, to cities, to out-of-control factories. In each scene, Mickey and Minnie attempt to save you from disaster, with mixed results. Note: Unless you plan on being one of the first people in the park, Runaway Railway will instantly have a high wait time. If this happens you should save it for later in the day, or ride it before the park closes.
4) Muppet*Vision 3D   See MuppetVision 3D. Muppet*Vision 3-D provides a total sensory experience, with wacky 3-D action augmented by auditory, visual, and tactile special effects. If you’re tired and hot, this zany show will make you feel brand-new. Arrive early to enjoy the hilarious video preshow.
5) Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Experience Rise of the Resistance in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Rise of the Resistance is an innovative attempt to integrate at least four different ride experiences— trackless vehicles, a motion simulator, walk-through environments, and even an elevator drop—into one of Disney’s longest attractions ever. Note: To ride you must join a Boarding Group that will be “called” at a later time that day, when you are allowed to get into line and wait. This is analogous to a same-day FastPass+ for an unknown time window. Use the My Disney Experience app to join a Boarding Group. Eventually you’ll receive a push notification or see that your Boarding Group is “now boarding” via in-park status screens. You must do this first thing in the morning when the park opens or at a second opening of Boarding Groups at 2 p.m.
6) Toy Story Mania! Go back to Toy Story Land and ride Toy Story Mania! This is an interactive shooting gallery much like Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, but in Toy Story Mania!, your ride vehicle passes through a totally virtual midway, with booths offering such games as ring tossing and ball throwing. You use a cannon on your ride vehicle to play as you move along from screen to screen. Unlike the laser guns in Buzz Lightyear, however, the pull-string cannons in Toy Story Mania! take advantage of CG image technology to toss rings, shoot balls, even throw eggs and pies. Each game booth is manned by a Toy Story character who is right beside you in 3-D glory, cheering you on. In addition to 3-D imagery, you experience vehicle motion, wind, and water spray. Ride only if the posted wait time is at an acceptable length. If not, save it for the very end of the day.
7) Alien Swirling Saucers   Take a spin on Alien Swirling Saucers.   Alien Swirling Saucers is themed around Toy Story’s vending-machine aliens and their obsession with The Claw. About a dozen ride cars move, whiplike, in a figure-eight around two circular tracks embedded in the ground. The ride experience is actually much milder than the Magic Kingdom’s Mad Tea Party.
8) Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run Take flight on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. Smugglers Run lets guests fly Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon, the “fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.” Guests approaching the attraction will see a life-size Millennium Falcon parked outside the spaceport. On board each rider is assigned his or her own station— a pilot and copilot up front to steer around obstacles and activate the hyperdrive, two gunners in the middle to shoot down enemy fighters, and a pair of engineers in the rear to repair the ship when the pilots and gunners mess up—and computer-generated scenery is projected on an ultra-HD dome outside the windshield. After Smugglers Run, explore Galaxy’s Edge if you haven’t already done so.
9) Eat Dinner Eat dinner and then ride anything else you may have missed, or use the time to do any repeat rides.

There’s no FastPass+ being offered at this time so you’ll have to do only stand-by lines. Don’t forget, you can customize and optimize this or any of our other touring plans using our personalized touring plans creator on the site or in our mobile app, Lines. Be sure to check out our other touring plans that will help you save time and money in Walt Disney World.

The post Disney’s Hollywood Studios One-Day Touring Plan for Parents with Small Children: Updated for COVID-19 Closures appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: Trip Planning, Walt Disney World (FL), touring plan

One of the attractions I am really looking forward to is Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, coming to EPCOT. I really enjoy Ratatouille the movie and it seems like it will be a fun addition to the France Pavilion. New signage has been installed showing the standby and FastPass+ return entrances to this attraction. We hopped aboard Disney Skyliner to capture a few pictures of the new signage, and enjoy the views along the way.

But first, let’s take a look at how beautiful the France Pavilion and entrance to Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure looked last week. The beautiful faced almost looks like a miniature village from this vantage point.

Now, one week later you can see the Standby Entrance and FastPass+ Entrance signs of the attraction being installed. It’s nice to see some movement toward opening this attraction.

Originally Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure was expected to open in Summer 2020. Of course, COVID-19 has thrown everything off and Disney has not set a new opening timeframe. Make sure you become a TouringPlans subscriber as our Lines app will show you the optimum time to ride this new attraction once it opens, and plan out the rest of your day with minimal wait times.

Are you looking forward to Remy’s Ratouille Adventure? Any guesses on when it will open?

The post New Signage for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Other Beautiful Views Aboard Disney Skyliner appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: Attractions, Epcot, In the Parks, Pixar, Transportation, Disney Skyliner, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure

Anyone here sick of deals yet? I didn’t think so.

If you are hoping to catch a good deal in November, I have some more good news for you. You can still find deals at the Dolphin or use a little bit of technique to squeeze some Yacht Club deals out of Priceline.

Even better news is that as of this weekend, some nice $139 Caribbean Beach deals dropped as well!

I have to say, I love Caribbean Beach and now that the Skyliner is there I’m especially looking forward to staying there again at some point.

If you are lucky, you may also find some Art of Animation deals on select days, but they seem to have gotten the Halloween spirit and ghosted away. These deals were mostly in the $197 to $233 range, which leads me to believe that they were for suite rooms. Since deals on Priceline Express sometimes ghost away only to reappear later, I’ll just mention them quickly here and include them on my calendar below in case they come back.

Back to the Caribbean Beach deals, you’ll be happy to hear they run through the entire month and offer a significant savings over all of the other rates I could find.

As you can see below, even with an additional fee tacked onto the area room taxes, the Priceline Express deal is rivaled only by the current Annual Pass discount (if you have one), and even there the Express Deal would save you $24.39 per night.

(Note: the cheapest Regular non-hidden Priceline deal available to book was for Water view, so that difference is likely higher than it would be for a standard room.)

Spotting these Caribbean Beach deals is fairly straightforward: it is currently the only 3.5-star 8-guest rated resort in Bonnet Creek with a review count in the 300s. (321 to be exact.) The other 3.5-star resorts in that area are Coronado Springs with 495 reviews and Wyndham Bonnet Creek with a mere 21 reviews. Below are examples of Caribbean Beach in both hidden and regular deals.

Before I post the full calendar of deals I’d like to add a few of the usual reminders: Priceline Express deals are non-refundable, so do your homework and take your time if you need to. Also, technically Express Deals only guarantee room for 2 people. However, because the vast majority of Disney resort rooms sleep 4, that is really not an issue. Once you book with 2 people you can try giving Priceline and/or Disney Wholesale a call to add more people to the room.

If you were able to book one of these rooms or just have a question about finding deals on Priceline Express, please let us know in the comments!

The post Priceline Express Deals: Caribbean Beach in November appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: discounts, Saving Money, Walt Disney World (FL), priceline

EPCOT and Animal Kingdom saw their highest average wait times of the past month today, part of a strong holiday weekend at Walt Disney World.

Magic Kingdom Wait Times

Several attractions for the Magic Kingdom saw their highest waits of the week today: Astro Orbiter, Mad Tea Party, Mickey’s PhilharMagic, and Space Mountain had their highest waits of the month today, too.  Splash Mountain had the highest average wait time of any attraction at 81 minutes. The actual wait in line was around 67% of the posted wait, so a posted wait time of 60 minutes at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train would’ve resulted in an actual wait of around 40 minutes.

EPCOT Wait Times

Every attraction at EPCOT today experienced their highest average wait times of the past month: Soarin’ had an average posted wait of 63 minutes, while Test Track had an average posted wait of 95 minutes, and Frozen Ever After‘s average wasn’t far behind at 92 minutes.  Your actual wait in line at EPCOT averages around 68% of the posted wait time, so a posted wait of 60 minutes at Spaceship Earth would’ve meant an actual wait of around 41 minutes.

Hollywood Studios Wait Times

It was a mixed bag over at Hollywood Studios.  Some rides were busier than they’ve been:

• Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith had an average wait time today of 63 minutes. Its 7-day average is 52 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 48 minutes, so today ranks #1 for the past month.
• Toy Story Mania! had an average wait time today of 38 minutes. Its 7-day average is 28 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 28 minutes, so today ranks #1 for the past month

Other attractions were not as busy as they’ve been lately:

• The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror had an average wait time today of 43 minutes. Its 7-day average is 49 minutes, so today ranks #4 for this week. Its 30-day average is 49 minutes, so today ranks #21 for the past month.
• Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway had an average wait time today of 80 minutes. Its 7-day average is 83 minutes, so today ranks #5 for this week. Its 30-day average is 84 minutes, so today ranks #20 for the past month.
• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run had an average wait time today of 61 minutes. Its 7-day average is 60 minutes, so today ranks #3 for this week. Its 30-day average is 60 minutes, so today ranks #14 for the past month.

Animal Kingdom Wait Times

Almost every attraction at Animal Kingdom had their highest average waits of the week and month today:

• Avatar Flight of Passage had an average wait time today of 85 minutes. Its 7-day average is 52 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 46 minutes, so today ranks #1 for the past month.
• DINOSAUR had an average wait time today of 52 minutes. Its 7-day average is 28 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 24 minutes, so today ranks #1 for the past month.
• Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain had an average wait time today of 51 minutes. Its 7-day average is 30 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 26 minutes, so today ranks #1 for the past month.
• Kali River Rapids had an average wait time today of 42 minutes. Its 7-day average is 26 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 20 minutes, so today ranks #1 for the past month.
• It’s Tough to Be a Bug! had an average wait time today of 29 minutes. Its 7-day average is 14 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 12 minutes, so today ranks #1 for the past month.
• Na’vi River Journey had an average wait time today of 53 minutes. Its 7-day average is 45 minutes, so today ranks #1 for this week. Its 30-day average is 40 minutes, so today ranks #1 for the past month.

The actual wait in line at Animal Kingdom today was around 74% of the posted wait, so a posted wait of 60 minutes at Kilimanjaro Safaris would’ve meant an actual wait of around 45 minutes.  And Animal Kingdom continues to have the most accurate posted wait times of any Walt Disney World theme park.

The post EPCOT, Animal Kingdom See Longest Waits of Past Month – Walt Disney World Wait Times for Sunday, October 11, 2020 appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: Walt Disney World (FL), wait times