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Hello everyone,
I realise this is about 11 weeks late, but better late than never, right?
Back in December we attended the DVC Moonlight Magic event at Epcot. It was a fun evening with some great characters, but other than that, I don't have a lot to say about it at this point, since it was over two months ago, but I thought it would be fun to share some photos from the evening anyway.
Enjoy!
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Hello everyone,
We continue to be super busy here at Character Central, but I know that social media and the internet does a pretty good job of keeping everyone informed of the latest Disney developments, anyway. However, today I want to share with you an experience that we had just last week that we don't often hear about in the magical world of Disney - Disney's Vero Beach Resort in Florida.
We only visited for the day, so you won't find in-depth room reviews here, or dining at the main restaurant, but we did do the Goofy's Beachfront Breakfast character dining, and walk around the whole property, including the store, spa, and outdoor areas.
Disney's Vero Beach Resort is located in the town of Vero Beach itself, on the Atlantic east coast of Florida, about two hours south east of the Walt Disney World Resort. It's a fairly easy drive through vast stretches of central Florida farmland.
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Hello everyone,
In part one of this report I shared with you my thoughts and experiences around the main lobby, character dining, shopping, our room, the spa, fitness centre, conference centre and much more. In this second, concluding part I am going to share with you everything from character greetings, the pool area, lazy river, other dining and shopping options, the beach, and more!
Let's start where we left off in the last part, heading down to the Waikolohe Valley.
The Waikolohe Valley is where the majority of the fun and relaxation at Aulani happens. It's where the pool, the lazy river, more dining and bar options, snorkelling reef and several other features are located, not to mention being the access point to the beach, and where nearly all the character greetings occur.
Wandering around the valley you get to experience the beautiful natural flora and fauna of Oahu, and some of those all important Disney details.
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Hello everyone,
At the start of this month (September), Jon and I visited Hawai'i for the very first time, staying for a few days at Disney's Aulani resort in Ko Olina, Oahu.
As you can imagine, with anywhere we visit for the first time, there is going to be a lot for me to talk about. I'm going to try to break things down into themes and categories, as to not be jumping around too much. This report will also be in two parts because of the sheer length of it, and the number of photos I want to share.
I'm going to start with first impressions and our approach to the resort.
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Hello everyone,
Last month (April 2017), Jon and I took part in our second runDisney weekend, the Star Wars Dark Side Half Marathon Weekend at Walt Disney World. Followers of my blog will know that in February we participated in our very first ever runDisney event at the Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend. Well, here we were, two months later, ready to do it all over again for the Empire!
I won't repeat everything I said in my first Princess blog about our impressions of runDisney, training, organisation of the event, impressions, etc, as many of those aspects were very similar this time, but needless to say, we were exceptionally proud of ourselves for being able to achieve not just one half marathon weekend, but now two in the space of two months!
As per the usual setup with the runDisney events, we went along on the Thursday before the race weekend to collect our bibs and merchandise at the health expo, at ESPN. The setup was virtually identical to the Princess Half expo, down to the bib collection areas, the vendor booths and show area, and the official race store.
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Hello everyone,
Last month, on the 14th April, Disney's Hollywood Studios held its first ever Star Wars Galactic Nights; a premium ticketed event held after park closing.
When Disney first announced Galactic Nights, it was kind of bittersweet. 2015 saw the last ever Star Wars Weekends at the park, which at the time we didn't know would be the final event. Star Wars Weekends were held over four or five consecutive weekends in May and June since 1997. The weekends were insanely popular, and involved many fun character greetings, shows, celebrity appearances, special dining options, special merchandise and much, much more. They were quite simply the ultimate Star Wars fan event. Without warning, Disney announced, after the 2015 event, that they had decided to cancel them, and so anyone who missed 2015 - or had already made plans for 2016 - were left very disappointed, and honestly, as diehard fans we were left bitterly let down and a little stunned.
Disney have tried in the past year to increase the Star Wars presence at Hollywood Studios, including the Star Wars Launch Bay, the March of the First Order, the fireworks spectacular and other small offerings. When Galactic Nights was announced, with the celebrity appearances, cavalcade and special character greetings, it felt like they were trying to give the fans a little bit of Star Wars Weekends back, if only for one night, and at a high premium.
With all that in mind, I was a little skeptical, honestly. How could one night live up to the all-day activities that lasted for four weeks per year? And how could we possibly get everything done in one night? I imagined it being a little frustrating, and actually anticipated complaining to guest relations at the end of the night, based on our recent experiences at Disney events. I don't deliberately go into these things wanting or intending to complain, but I think I was so jaded by the loss of Star Wars Weekends, and now having to pay a lot of money to just even get a slither of that back for one night, that I just expected to dislike it.
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Hello everyone,
As Jon and I spend an increasing amount of time at the Walt Disney World Resort theme parks, I find it correspondingly redundant to post "trip reports", in the more traditional sense. You may have noticed that, for example, recently I posted a stand alone review of the Garden Grill, a report on meeting the stars of Cars 3, and my report on the DVC Moonlight Magic event here on Character Central, and over on Two Lost Boys, my review of Flower and Garden 2017 at Epcot. I thought that it would be nice to share the more "generic" things we saw, too, over the past two months, and so decided to make this report more of a round-up of multiple visits, rather than breaking it down into separate trip reports. We will actually be back at the parks again this week and next, and so you should expect to see a similar round-up and more specialised individual reports once I get around to doing them, too.
Let's start our February-March walk though the park with the Magic Kingdom. [ Read More... ] |
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Hello everyone,
A couple of weeks ago we had lunch at The Garden Grill, inside The Land pavilion at Epcot. We had eaten there several times in the past, but it had been several years, so we thought it was time that we went back to get an updated view.
The Garden Grill is a character dining experience, which has its own title of Chip 'n' Dale's Harvest Feast. Throughout your dining experience, Chip and Dale, as well as Mickey Mouse and Pluto, make their way around the restaurant for hugs, photos and autographs. Prices can be up to $60 per adult, depending on the time of day, plus tax and tip. You should plan to be in the restaurant for at least an hour. Reservations are accepted, and can be made on the My Disney Experience app.
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Hello everyone,
At the end of February we were fortunate enough to attend a special event at the Magic Kingdom held for DVC Members. Moonlight Magic was held on two separate nights from 10pm until 1am. Tickets were free for DVC members and up to five of their guests, however, you needed to book it in advance, and spaces were limited. [ Read More... ] |
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Hello everyone,
Last weekend, the Lightning McQueen was joined by Cruz Ramirez and Jackson Storm at Disney Springs, at Walt Disney World, for a special three-day appearance to kick off their nationwide tour to promote the new movie (June 16th).
We were there on Sunday to meet them, and so I have some photos to share with you all. [ Read More... ] |
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