Disney Parades

Disney Parades are a huge part of the Disney parks. They encompass the feel of Disney and include a lot of the favourite Disney characters. The theme of the parades changes over the years and quite often they theme them to show case a new Disney film that is being released. There are characters, amazing floats, dancers and of course insanely catchy Disney music!!! Currently at the Magic Kingdom, the parade is ‘Disney’s Share a Dream Come True’ parade which sees your favourite Disney characters and beloved stories inside giant snow globes!! It sounds amazing and, like everything else Disney does, they do it 200%. The parade is held daily at 3pm (and is referred to as ‘the afternoon parade’).

The parade route is one of two routes. It either starts at Town Square and works it way to Frontierland or it begins in Frontierland and works it’s way towards Town Square. The more usual route is from Town Square where it passes along Main street, infront of the Cinderella Castle, crossing the bridge that leads to Liberty Square then briefly into Frontierland before Continue reading “Disney Parades” »

Halloween in Florida

There are a great selection of times when it is fun to be in Florida, and yes I know it is always fun to be in Florida but this is about Extra fun! Halloween is one of those times. In England we don’t really do Halloween, in America they really do do Halloween and in Florida with the parks, as you can imagine they go a bit further!!!!!!

Halloween this year in Florida consists, as normal, of events in each of the main theme parks where you can take your families along and chose quite how scared you want to make them all. This year just to give you am idea of what there is out there for both the brave and the terrified you have got

• 21st Annual Halloween Horror Nights2011 at Universal Studios Orlando – At Universal you get the event that is billed as the Nations Premier Halloween Event and as a company that makes movies including a few of the scary variety it is a fair bet to say that their events are not for those not prepared to terrified!! The events are marked as ill-advised for kids under 13! With “The Thing” coming out in the cinemas shortly there has unfortunately been an escape of the Monster at Universal Orlando!! Featuring the undead from the Second World War with a few grudges, do you dare take on the maze in the dark?? If that wasn’t enough the maze keeps changing, there Continue reading “Halloween in Florida” »

Fastpass for parades

Following on from the article that we wrote about the use of fastpasses on major rides in Disney there has been some news recently to say that Disney is now looking to try and use the fast pass idea for the parades throughout the park. As we know fast passes offer the user the ability to book a timed slot in which they will go one of the major rides, this then allows them access to an entrance to the ride that misses about 80% of the queue as it helps the park to manage the queue as it means they can even out the number of people wanting to use the ride throughout the day.

The mention of using Fast Passes for the parade is slightly confusing. At this time they are only trialling a system for a month or so but it will work with Disney cast members randomly handing out fast passes for Continue reading “Fastpass for parades” »

Use Disney Fastpasses To Avoid The Queues

Disney FastPass is an idea that was conceived by Disney but has now being used in slightly different ways by attractions around the world, unfortunately other atractions are using it as a way to make more money rather then to give everyone a nicer experience. The idea of the fastpass is that with the more popular rides the park knows that the queues for rides would be better for everyone if they had a set number of people wanting to go on the ride all day rather then people coming in lumps as this causes a large queue at certain times of day that is nearly impossible to get rid of, therefore they came up with the FastPass system.

It is the sad truth that where there are lots of poeple there are lots of queues and they tend to be rather large. On one of our trips to Disneys Magic Kingdom we thought it would be nice and quiet as we were going in September which is a quieter month and it was a Friday, it turned out though to be a holiday in Florida and so the park was madly busy and Continue reading “Use Disney Fastpasses To Avoid The Queues” »

Disney’s Hollywood Studios – The Movies Come to Life

This is a fantastic park and particularly for those that love movies! It is Florida’s little bit of Hollywood. There is a great mix of rides and shows. We have been there without kids and with our son and it is an amazing place for both types of trip.

The main rides for the adrenaline junkies would have to be ‘The Twighlight Zone Tower of Terror’. The name of the ride is very apt!! I have been on this ride a number of times but the time that sticks in my mind the most is the Continue reading “Disney’s Hollywood Studios – The Movies Come to Life” »

Florida Memories – Priceless

As I am sure it is clear we here at Florida Premier Villas are complete Florida nuts and every now and again I try and reign myself in about the fact that many people have not been as lucky as us and have not had the opportunity to go. I think the thing for us is that we have been to Florida as young people wanting a blast as well as a family experience but the nice thing is that this all works really well.

The memories that I have of Florida, people will always say are “through rose tinted glasses” and there will be an element of this, BUT looking back over the times I have been to Florida I still cannot think of something there that I did not like or that wound me up. The things I remember most are often not even in a specific park or doing one of the things that people concentrate on when going to Disney but many are the small things. For example I still have a great memory of a family breakfast we had at Continue reading “Florida Memories – Priceless” »

Animal Kingdom – Much More Than Rides

Animal Kingdom is the newest of the Disney World parks and one of my favourites. The park is dominated by the enormous ‘Tree of Life’ which is a sight to behold. It is a 14 storey tree that has a trunk that has 325 different animals carved into it! You could spend a whole day just trying to spot them all! Inside the Tree of Life is a show about a Bug’s Life. It is a great show with effects such as bugs running under your seats and many more which you will have to discover for yourself.

As the name ‘Animal Kingdom’  would suggest there are plenty of animals to see all through the park. There is a lovely train ride through the safari park where you can see all types of animals. There are walks where you can Continue reading “Animal Kingdom – Much More Than Rides” »

My Magic Kingdon – I Love It

As far as I am concerned, this is Disney! Each time I have been to Florida the first thing we have always done is go to Magic Kingdom. This always gets us into the perfect mood and gets you ready for what must be your best holiday! Where else can you arrive at a park and on arrival to get to the gate you can either go by mono-rail or paddle steamer! We have yet to go on the monorail as ‘It Has To Be The Steamer’. On arriving at getting through the gates you arrive in the square at the bottom of Main Street. If you have ever seen the photos of a friend that has been to Florida, there is a picture of main street and the mighty castle at the far end, I still look at the photo from the first time I ever went there and remember the buzz and enjoyment of finally being there! You can even sit on a bench with Walt and Mickey mouse for a photo, albeit a bronze version (Mickey is busy after all).

This square is the start of the Magic Kingdom and the location for hiring pushchairs and the like for your day, you can of course take you own or hire them. At the far end of Main street in the mighty castle. This plays as centre point of the park with the 4 lands of Magic Kingdom as paths from this point. The 4 lands are .. Fantasyland, Frontierland, Adventureland and Tomorrowland. Each land has its own Continue reading “My Magic Kingdon – I Love It” »

Getting In The Disney Mood

One one occasion when in Disney we spotted on the edge of a stand a CD with Disney on the front. As you can imagine we expected it to be pretty much the normal soundtrack music of one or another cartoon. However was something a bit different, it was the soundtrack to the Disney parade that goes through the main park, and we have to say that it flew straight into our top ten songs. It was played endlessly on our holiday and still whenever we need a Disney hit or a pick me up we put the CD on and have fond recollections of being their in the warm weather in the best place in the world.

Now for all you serious souls out there I wanted to offer you a link into itunes so that you could hear a snippet and buy the song but I could not find it on there, hence after some looking around the tinternet (have to love Peter kay) I found this video on you tube as an alternative which is someones holiday video of the parade with the tune over the top. The full Parade when you see it in Disney is properly choreographed with perfect motions for the tune. But this gives you a good idea of what it is like……. I miss it