Walt Disney World/Disneyland

140618 Hollywood Studios Sorcerer Hat

Hollywood & Vine Dining Fantasmic Package

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One of the major shows that eluded our family for years at Disney World was Fantasmic. Hollywood Studios nighttime show is located back in a secluded stadium of the park that brings together good versus villains in Mickey Mouse’s dream. Our family has seen it at Disneyland, but never opted to stay in Hollywood Studios late enough to see the show.

So for my father-in-laws 60th birthday celebration, we decided to not only see the show, but also get FastPasses for preferred seating as part of a dining package.

We selected to dine at Hollywood & Vine, since we had never eaten there before. The dining experience is an all-you-can eat buffet with a large selection of dining options. Dinner costs $35.99 for adults; $19.99 for children, and includes your VIP seating voucher for Fantasmic.

Shortly before our dining reservation, my oldest son really wanted to go on the Studio Backlot Tour, which also was going on the last round of departures for the evening. So my wife and I elected to dart the three of us over to the Streets of America while the rest of our party proceeded towards Hollywood & Vine.

We quickly entered the queue and requested to go beyond everyone in the preshow, so we could get directly onto the tram. Long story short, we made it through the entire Studios Backlot Tour, and then ran as fast as we could back to Hollywood & Vine, sometime after the rest of our party already started eating.

While everyone in our party was starving, I, however, for some reason was really not that hungry. So I kindly requested if there was a way for me to not have to pay to eat, but still “buy” my ticket to Fantasmic. Apparently this was new ground for our cast member, as he had to talk with a manager, and getting that accomplished took an extremely long time. So much so, that I eventually forced myself to gorge on the meal I was bound not to purchase but was required to upon walking through the doors of Hollywood & Vine.

The good thing was the food was all VERY good, with a large selection of options, and an excellent dessert bar, which included a chocolate fountain with fresh fruit, a personal favorite.

Following our meal, it was time to make our way towards the stadium for Fantasmic.

Guests with the VIP tickets are directed towards special sections at the center of the stage, while everyone else goes towards the outskirts. In reality, I am not sure if there really is a bad seat in the house, as it appeared every seat could see the entire stage just fine. With no roof overhead, there is not anything that would prevent blocking of the stage, other than maybe the person in front of you.

Like many aspects, I personally enjoy the Disneyland version of Fantasmic compared to that of Hollywood Studios. While the show is still good, some of the special effects tended to mask ever seeing what was happening, in particular the dragon at the end. The Disneyland version also uses several big ships, including a giant pirate ship.

Below is the full video of the Hollywood Studios Fantasmic show. While none of the water screen scenes videoed to well, the camera has trouble focusing on them, the character portions turned out pretty good.

Have you seen both the Disneyland and Disney World versions of Fantasmic? What did you think?

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Source: InACents

Disney Every Role a Starring Role

Ten Things I Learned From Working at Disneyland

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Disney Every Role a Starring Role

If you had the chance to work at a Disney Park, what job would you want to do? As a self-proclaimed Imagineer, I sometimes wonder what it would be like to work at a Disney Amusement Park. Now just for the record, I never have actually worked for Disney, but it is cool to wonder, no?

My wife often jokes with me about moving down to Orlando and that I could work as an Imagineer for Disney. However, I always quickly ixnay the idea of working at Disney. My biggest fear, if I were to actually ever work for Disney, is the loss of entertainment value of going to the Parks with my family. I like the feeling, the smells, the nostalgia of going inside a Disney Park and trying to figure out how did they do that? I love the magical emotion that one experiences when their kid sees their favorite character wave to them in a parade. I enjoy finding the hidden details and experiences that help share the story the Parks are portraying to the guests. Working at Disney, I feel, would take away all of those personal experiences.

If I were to actually work for the Parks, like any job, one eventually becomes jaded by their employer, the people, the place, and eventually, it starts to tarnish the experience. However, maybe that is not so for most people when working for Disney Parks.

I recently stumbled upon a series of videos on YouTube that were produced by Disneyland, titled “Every Role a Starring Role.” The idea was the interview employees throughout the various aspects of the Park, and within 1-2 minutes, highlight the position, their importance to the process, and what they love about their jobs.

These are the type of insider information I love about Disney. Everyone sees “the show” that is portrayed when going through the Park, but how everything is put together is very entertaining for this self-proclaimed Imagineer.

I learned various new aspects about the Park operations from watching the videos, as I will highlight below.

10) Disney has a job for everything. It is quite remarkable that it appears Disney outsources very little in terms of working on details for the Parks.

9) The Jungle Cruise horticulture team swaps out the plant life once per month.

8) The incredible attention to hand-crafted details that goes into signs around the Parks from the Resort Sign Shop.

7) Resort cast costuming handles over 800 different outfit pieces for the Disneyland cast members.

6) How does everyone at the Candy Maker still have their teeth and not weigh 300 pounds?

5) Besides the Imagineers, absolutely the most impressive group of cast members is the Custodial Services group, which does a spectacular job keeping the Parks spotless.

4) Think about this, we drive or walk past hundreds or thousands of trees everyday of our lives. Do we ever take the time to stop and really look at them? When my wife and I went on the Keys to the Kingdom tour for our honeymoon, the first thing we learned is how guest safety is the most imperative part to each cast members role. So the next time you are at a Disney Park, just think about the countless trees around you, that it is a Resort Arborist’s role to make sure no limbs fall.

3) Do you think walking through and maintaining the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in the middle of the night would be scary with all the animatronics staring at you? What if you were working on a part of the ride, and someone flicked the switch for them to start moving and talking.

2) If I could tour one backstage area at Disney, it would possibly be the Resort Enhancement Team. I look at my basement with it’s small section of Christmas, Halloween, and assorted holiday decorations and get overwhelmed. Then I wonder just how big the Disney warehouse must be to store all of their decorations. Then, what if they do not decide to use certain decorations the following year. Do they still save them?

1) Not only are there thousands of cast members responsible for making your Disney experience fantastic, but there are even cast members in charge of making sure the cast members are happy with special events.

Take some time and view the videos in the Every Role a Starring Role video series from Disneyland. The next time you are in the Park, and rushing about to get Fast Passes, planning which Land to tackle first, or what food to indulge, remember the countless cast members, in addition to Imagineers, that make your Disney experience fantastic.

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Source: YouTube

8/12/13- Originally published

Tony’s Town Square Restaurant & Main Street Electrical Parade

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During our families recent trip to Disney World, my wife and I disagreed on one of our dining reservations. She was all for eating at Tony’s Town Square Restaurant, located right at the entrance into the park, because of the Lady and the Tramp theme and because we had never eaten there before. I was a little more apprehensive since the limited reviews I had read of the restaurant were not all that enticing.

However, our friend Tonya had visited Tony’s Town Square right before our trip, and wrote a review on Traveling Mom, which had me a little more interested in having a good meal. Noise…I can deal with, after all I have three young kids. Good quality food and the Disney experience was what I was there to enjoy.

On one of our last days in the parks, and with very few sit down table service restaurants in the park, we elected to have dinner at Tony’s Town Square.

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My wife had prearranged via Disney Dining reservations out table for eight people at 8:00 PM, since the Main Street Electrical Light Parade started at 9:00. I however, had a plan to try and arrive there early and request a patio table with direct views of the parade. So I rushed ahead of our party as fast as I could and got to the front desk approximately 45 minutes prior to our reservation to see if I could get the special request. While I was worried I made my party wait a really long time for a table, I had hopes that it would all be worth it.

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Fortunately, the staff was great, and while they could not promise anything, said they would let us know what they could do. By around 8:15-8:30, we were called to our tables on the front porch. Due to the size of our party, they could not seat us together, but we were at adjacent tables overlooking the parade route.

Long before we even got seated, guests were already lining Main Street for their favorite view. I was just so excited that I could play a minor part in providing a little surprise to make my father-in-laws 60th birthday just a little more special. We could have sat anywhere in the restaurant and been seated much sooner, but how cool is it to have a patio table view of the parade?

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Unfortunately, we happen to get a cast member that must not have been having the most magical day, as she was not the most friendly. It was not till the end of the dinner, where I was finally able to joke around with her enough to get her to loosen up.

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For dinner, I opted to order Chicken Parmigiana (a lightly breaded chicken breast with marinara sauce, topped with melted mozzarella over spaghetti- $20.99)

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This is one of the few restaurants my wife and I elected not to share a meal, and thank goodness we ordered our own. She opted to order the Seasonal Ravioli, which was a chicken marsala style for $17.99.

While my wife’s entree was good, my chicken parmigiana was ok, but nothing notable. The portion size was acceptable, but smaller than I expected. I like a big bowl of pasta, and I found myself still hungry from the experience. Let alone, my chicken and sauce really did not have much flavor, and I found it rather bland.

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The real gem came in the form of the Main Street Electrical parade. We could not have timed it any more perfect. We were actually eating during the parade, so it is not like we were sitting around wasting time for it to start. The staff prevented people from walking around on the patio during the parade too, which was an excellent touch.

My only complaints were I think the lights of the restaurant should have been dimmed during the parade. Sitting under a bright porch kind of lost the impact of the parade. I understand people are eating, but the lights could have at least dimmed to be a little more ambient. Also, the area directly in front of the restaurant was under construction with perimeter walls. While they were low walls, the angle of the porch to the parade was slightly obstructed.

140620 Disney's Tony's Town Square Restaurant (7)

Regardless, I think everyone enjoyed the experience at Tony’s Town Square Restaurant, and the waitress even brightened all of our day by bringing a happy birthday card over for my father-in-law with Lady and the Tramps footprints, a cute touch.

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Source: InACents