#disneyside Archives - The Mom Maven

Have Fun with the Show Your Disney Side App

cindy — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 10:00:30 +0000

Last summer I introduced you to the Aurasma app which you could use at the Disney’s Frozen Summer Fun event. Recently Disney unleashed a new app to help you show your Disney Side anywhere! The new Show Your Disney Side App is available only in the Apple App Store, is a free app that lets you transform your selfie into a Disney character.

I started seeing these pictures pop up in my Facebook stream and I just had to try it out. The Show Your Disney Side App is simple to use:

Open the app
Choose from Frozen, Star Tours, Pirates of the Caribbean or Disney Villains
Choose your character
Frame your photo and shoot
You can customize your characters with costumes and frames
You can tap or swipe on your picture and see special effects for each character
You can even record videos of your Disney Side Characters
Photos and Videos can be shared with friends
You can view other peoples pictures bu searching #DisneySide on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram

Have you seen any of the pictures on social media? Have you and your family played with the app? Jordan and I have had a lot of fun with it, even the dog got in on the fun! I’d love to see your pictures, link to them in the comments!

The post Have Fun with the Show Your Disney Side App appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Rock Your Disneyside 24 Hour Party

cindy — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 10:00:17 +0000

Well…it’s over and we didn’t last 24 hours this time There are a few reasons we didn’t last and I’ll cover them later but first let’s start at the very beginning. We woke up at 3:30am and we headed to Magic Kingdom at 4:15am. We parked in Zurg 102, walked to the TTC and got in line for the monorail, which was to begin operating at 5:15am. We waited patiently and chatted with other Disney enthusiasts in line until it was time to cram into the monorail. We were stuffed in like sardines and we could barely move. We got through bag check and Ron went to get our locker while Kim, Verlin and I secured a spot up front for the rope drop ceremony. Last year’s rope drop was awesome and we didn’t want to miss this one.

Rope drop was nothing special, except that it included some villains. The park opened and we headed back to Fantasyland. We had our group photo taken in front of Cinderella’s carriage…it is on our Photopass, which I won’t purchase but none of us had it taken on our phones so…no group photo this year! We finished with our photo and saw a line forming, so we got in it, assuming it was for the not-yet-open Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We were right! In less than 30 minutes we had played in the interactive queue and ridden the crowning glory of the New Fantasyland expansion. It is an amazing ride, but the seats are much too narrow. It is a very uncomfortable ride for plus size riders.

Our original goal was for at least one person in our group to ride every attraction in the park. While we didn’t quite succeed at that feat, we did complete 77% of the attractions not including meet ‘n greets. We completed all 3 attractions in Liberty Square and all 8 in Tomorrowland, yes, we all rode Stitch’s Great Adventure and the Tomorrowland Speedway. In Adventure land we did 5 out of 6 attractions, our plan was to do A Pirate’s Adventure-Treasures of the Seven Seas in the middle of the night. In Frontierland we completed 4 out of 6 attractions. We didn’t get to that side of the park until after dusk so we missed Tom Sawyer Island and when we headed to Splash Mountain is was “out of order” and we never made it back. In Fantasyland we did 6 out of 11, our worst land. Again, we were saving Peter Pan, Enchanted Tales with Belle, Mad Tea Party, Dumbo and Barnstormer for middle of the night rides due to the long lines during the day.

What Happened

So, what happened to send us home at 1:00am? Three things actually heat, crowds and pain. Last year during the Monstrous Summer All-Nighter the high temperature was 92° with a breeze. This year it was 97° with no breeze. The “feels like” temperature this year was 102° and we were all really zapped by the heat. Last year the crowds dissipated after the evening parades, this year that didn’t happen. When we left at 1:00am people were still streaming into the park, wait times for popular rides were still 60+ minutes and the crowds were everywhere, not just concentrated on Main Street, USA. Thirdly, Ron was in pain. He didn’t just have sore feet. he was hurting, bad. If we just had a few hours left, he would have plopped himself in Tomorrowland and watched “The Incredibles” on the Rocket Tower screen while the rest of us played in the park. Five hours was too long to ask him to suffer for the rest of us. Since we only brought one car from the hotel, we all decided to leave together.

What will we do differently next time?

Pay closer attention to the weather forecast. We wore sunscreen and stayed hydrated with non-caffeinated beverages and water but we need to plan differently if the temps are forecast to soar again.
Probably leave and come back. We aren’t young kids anymore but I hated missing the overnight fun. Next year I will still arrive early and play in the park from 6am-1pm ish then I will get a good lunch and head to the hotel to sleep. I’ll head back to the park 9pm-6am and continue the fun.
Plan better Fastpasses. We had A LOT of trouble organizing our Fastpass+ in advance because we couldn’t sync the 3 accounts necessary for all of us to get our Fastpasses together at the same time. I know this is something Disney is working on so hopefully, a year from now, it will be improved.

What do I wish Disney would do differently?

I missed the original 24 hour party on 2-29-12 because I had surgery that day. That being said, I’d like to see the 24 hour party moved off of a holiday weekend due to the crowds AND back to February or post-Easter April, when the weather is cooler.

Did you attempt the Rock Your Disneyside 24 hour party? Did you make it? What are your thoughts about Disney doing 24 hour events?

The post Rock Your Disneyside 24 Hour Party appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Rock Your Disney Side

cindy — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 10:43:34 +0000

Friday we spent a lovely day at Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios with our friends the Wilsons. That morning we had been talking about last year’s Monstrous Summer All-Nighter and how we hoped Disney would do another 24 hour party this year. At about 12:30pm I started getting texts from some of my Disney friends who were home seeing the announcement of Disney’s Rock Your Disney Side 24-hour summer kick off! I sat on a bench in Innoventions and started researching what the event would entail and posted on some friend’s Facebook walls to start organizing our group for another monumental Disney experience.

Disney’s Ultimate Tweet

140 Disney characters gathered at Walt Disney World Resort today creating the Ultimate Tweet to announce the latest Disney Parks bi-coastal, all-night extravaganza; and guests are invited to show their “Disney Side” by dressing as their favorite Disney hero or villain. *

Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto and 135 of their friends came together to trumpet the countdown to “Rock Your Disney Side: 24-Hours” this Memorial Day Weekend, the traditional start of the family travel season, when guests of Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland Resort in California can enjoy select parks for 24 hours nonstop.

The whole picture:

photo courtesy of Disney (David Roark, photographer)

The list of all 140 Disney Characters involved can be found on the Disney Parks Blog.

About the Rock Your Disney Side Party

The Magic Kingdom Park in Florida and Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park in California will be filled with great Disney heroes and villains from 6 a.m., May 23 to 6 a.m., May 24, 2014, local time** marking the beginning of a summer of fun at Disney Parks. The celebration on both coasts will feature a cavalcade of events showcasing the good-vs.-evil of classic Disney stories including character meet-and-greets throughout the parks, special entertainment, event merchandise, and food and beverage offerings. Along with the entertainment guests have grown to love every day, they’ll discover surprise additions and special events throughout the 24 hours.

What is Your Disney Side?

Everybody has two sides. There’s your normal, everyday side that goes to work, studies for school and doesn’t do anything crazy. But you also have another more fun side—your Disney side. That’s the side you simply can’t wait to share as a family. It’s the side of you that laughs more, screams more, says “yes” more and just plain lives life to the fullest. It’s the side of you that comes out to play the moment your family steps through the gates of a Disney Theme Park. So why wait? Share the magic right now and come show your Disney side!

The Disney Side of Summer Sweepstakes

Guests also can tweet how they plan to “Rock” their Disney Side this summer along with #DisneySideSweepsEntry for a chance to win a coast-to-coast 7-day / 6-night Disney Parks vacation for 4 and attend the Rock Your Disney Side 24-Hour event! One winner and three guests can enjoy a back-to-back stay at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida followed by Disneyland® Resort in California to join us for the “Rock Your Disney Side: 24-Hours.”

For more information on other ways to Show Your Disney Side, check out www.RockYourDisneySide.com

Why I am so Excited!

The party is being held May 23-24, 2014. May 25th is my birthday soooo I can spend my last days as a 49 year old celebrating with Mickey Mouse!!
Disney 24-hour events are epic!
I’ve been showing my Disney Side since my first visit to Walt Disney World in 1972 and I plan to show my Disney Side until long after I am gone because I have passed my love of all things Disney down to my children!
Spending 24-hours in a Disney park with friends and family creates memories that last forever!
I’ll be entering the sweepstakes everyday because a trip to Disneyland is on my bucket list but not in my budget and winning that contest would be an epic 50th birthday present.

So, do you think I’m crazy or do you want to join me at the Rock Your Disney Side event? I’d really love to know what you think about this event so please leave me a comment.

The post Rock Your Disney Side appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Mouse House Memories-A Pirate’s Adventure

cindy — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 11:21:08 +0000

In May of 2013 A Pirate’s Adventure: Treasure of the Seven Seas opened in Adventureland at the Magic Kingdom. My friend Kim and I finally got to experience the adventure for ourselves last month.

About A Pirate’s Adventure: Treasure of the Seven Seas

In A Pirate’s Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas, guests will use a pirate map and magic talisman to help them complete five different pirate raids throughout Adventureland. The goal is to help locate different Treasures of the Seven Seas and fight off pirate enemies like the Royal Navy and Captain Barbossa, among others. If guests help Captain Jack succeed in all the missions, they’ll be welcomed as part of his new crew. If not, they’ll face the wrath of the cruel sea – alone.

Now that all park tickets are RFID they don’t have the magic talisman anymore, you just use your park ticket. In the top left photo in the collage below you can see Kim using her ticket.

A Pirate’s Adventure Video

My friend John from BigFatPanda.com did a great video about A Pirate’s Adventure. instead of re-inventing the wheel, he gave me permission to embed his video for you to see.

Mom Maven’s Thoughts on A Pirate’s Adventure

There are 5 different adventures you can go on and each one takes 15-20 minutes. When you finish one it directs you to go back to the enlistment station to begin another adventure. To date, my favorite interactive adventure at Walt Disney World was the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure. For me it was the perfect mix of favorite characters, technology and park interaction. A Pirate’s Adventure has moved into second place due to the simplicity and interactivity as well as the shorter time constraints. As much as I love Phineas & Ferb, Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure is a bit too much. It takes up a lot of time and makes you do a lot of walking and back tracking. My least favorite of the interactive adventures is Sorcerer’s of the Magic Kingdom due to the trading cards, and magic theme of the adventure.

A Pirate’s Adventure is fun for all ages. We are two 40-something moms and we enjoyed doing it with no kids attached :-). Next time you are in the Magic Kingdom give it a try. If you have already completed the adventure please leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Join Mouse House Memories

Write a post about Disney and add it to the Linky. Make sure you link to the actual post and not to your home page. Links that go to a home page will be deleted. Linky will be open Monday-Sunday of each week.
In your post mention that you are linking up to Mouse House Memories at TheMomMaven.com.
Optional but appreciated. Use the “Mouse House Memories Badge” at the top of this section of the post in your post, sidebar or blogroll and link back to the main Mouse House Memories post
http://themommaven.com/walt-disney-world/

The post Mouse House Memories-A Pirate’s Adventure appeared first on The Mom Maven.