Before we look forward into this new year, let’s look back at the most read Disney posts of 2014-just in case you missed any of them. Please feel free to share any of these posts on your social media channels so that others can enjoy them too.

#5 You can Have a Frozen Summer at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Photo courtesy of Disney-David Roark, photographer

#4 Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party 2014

Photo courtesy of Disney

#3 A Visit to Frozen Summer Fun Part 1

This post was also my “most shared on social media” Disney post of 2014!

#2 Using the Aurasma App at Disney’s Frozen Summer Fun

#1 The Current Major Complaint about Fastpass+ at Walt Disney World

The post Top 5 Disney Posts of 2014 appeared first on The Mom Maven.

When LeVar was announced and his biggest accomplishments were read-Kunta Kinte in Roots, Geordi in Star Trek:The Next Generation and host of Reading Rainbow, it was Reading Rainbow that got the most applause and cheers! That made my heart soar because he has done so much to promote literacy in our country that I was happy the audience acknowledged that work.

My favorite of all the songs in the Candlelight Processional is “Rejoice with Exceeding Great Joy!”

Unfortunately, for the last 2 years the poem “One Solitary Life” by Dr James Allen Francis has been missing from the performance. This is sad because it sums up the life and power of Jesus so simply and it fit seamlessly into the production. Supposedly it was cut due to time but the show is about the same length as it always has been. I have included it here, so that you won’t miss it.

One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village
The child of a peasant woman
He grew up in another obscure village
Where he worked in a carpenter shop
Until he was thirty when public opinion turned against him

He never wrote a book
He never held an office
He never went to college
He never visited a big city
He never travelled more than two hundred miles
From the place where he was born
He did none of the things
Usually associated with greatness
He had no credentials but himself

He was only thirty three

His friends ran away
One of them denied him
He was turned over to his enemies
And went through the mockery of a trial
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing
The only property he had on earth

When he was dead
He was laid in a borrowed grave
Through the pity of a friend

Nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race
And the leader of mankind’s progress
All the armies that have ever marched
All the navies that have ever sailed
All the parliaments that have ever sat
All the kings that ever reigned put together
Have not affected the life of mankind on earth
As powerfully as that one solitary life

If you ever get to with Walt Disney World during the holiday season, I hope you have the opportunity to attend the Candlelight Processional. It is truly amazing and singing in this production is a bucket list item for me. I’m not sure how it could happen at this stage in my life but I still dream about it.

The post Our Visit to the 2014 Candlelight Processional at Epcot appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Busch Gardens Tampa

Christmas Town transforms Busch Gardens® Tampa into a holiday wonderland of wintery surprises and all things Christmas, filling guests’ senses with seasonal sights, sounds and flavors, and continuing a beautiful family tradition.

Christmas Town is now included with any annual pass, Fun Card or daily admission to the park. This year’s event has added even more dates to experience Christmas Town attractions, shows and shopping. Christmas Town is open 23 select dates and park closing times will range from 8pm to 9pm throughout the event, Nov. 28 through Dec. 31.

From the nostalgic Holiday Hills to the nature-inspired Jungle Jubilee, more than a million lights will blanket Busch Gardens during Christmas Town. Plus, fan-favorite shows including Christmas on Ice and the Carol of the Bells light show return to ring in the season. In addition, brand new beautifully-lit areas will debut at Christmas Town:

• Dazzling lantern stars transform Pantopia into the jewel-toned Celestial Crossing, complete with a gigantic LED star that beautifully lights the way to Mrs. Claus’ Family Feast and the Christmas Celebration show. The new area is also home to the Bottle Christmas Tree, a conservation collaboration project that transformed 5,000 recycled plastic bottles into a Christmastime masterpiece with the help of nearly 50 Hillsborough county schools.
• The Egypt area of the park transforms into the humble town of Bethlehem, where guests discover the famed journey to the Three Kings. The magical story unfolds as the North Star guides the way to a land filled with desert-themed rustic décor, larger-than-life camels and the Three Kings Caravan.

We attended Christmas Town last year  when it was a hard ticket event. Unfortunately, Snow World is gone but the event should be a nice addition to your day at Busch Gardens.

SeaWorld Orlando

Waves of holiday spirit splash over the park during SeaWorld’s Christmas Celebration. Here in a wintery, watery wonderland, guests of all ages will enjoy stunning live shows inspired by the natural world, journey to the North Pole on THE POLAR EXPRESS Experience, then share a smile with a playful penguin at the South Pole while visiting the park’s newest attraction, Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin®!

Christmas carols can be heard as guests encounter a sparkling Sea of Trees and skaters dancing on ice. With everything from Santa to Shamu®, presents to penguins, and elves to Elmo, SeaWorld’s Christmas Celebration is where holiday memories are made. The celebration takes place on select dates November 22 through December 31, 2014 and is included with park admission, annual pass and Fun Card.

Visit SeaWorldOrlando.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest details about SeaWorld’s Christmas Celebration. Join the conversation by using the hashtag #SeaWorldChristmas.

New this year:

Christmas Show Seating Packages

• Christmas Signature Show Seating and Dine with Shamu – Guests will enjoy reserved seating at our most popular Christmas shows and enjoy Orlando’s most immersive and memorable family dining experience – Dine With Shamu® at SeaWorld® Orlando. A complimentary family photo is also included to remember the night.
• Christmas Signature Show Seating and Santa’s Fireside Feast — Enjoy reserved seating at our most popular Christmas shows, a warm-hearted holiday experience and meet Santa and Mrs. Claus at Santa’s Fireside Feast.
• Christmas Signature Show Seating and Dining Certificate and Family Photo — Enjoy reserved seating at our most popular Christmas shows and a dining certificate to use that evening at any participating restaurant. Dining Certificate includes an entrée with its accompanying side, an additional side item and a non-alcoholic beverage.

Christmas Show Seating provides guests with reserved seating at Shamu® Christmas Miracles, O Wondrous Night, and Winter Wonderland on Ice, plus front-of-the-line access to THE POLAR EXPRESS Experience.

Christmas Family Fun Tour

• Experience the favorite attractions for children at SeaWorld’s Christmas Celebration during this 3-hour walking tour. Highlights include: a penguin meet and greet, reserved seating at the Elmo’s Christmas Wish show, a warm-hearted meal at Santa’s Fireside Feast with an exclusive visit with Santa and front-of-the-line access to THE POLAR EXPRESS Experience.

We were invited to attend SeaWorld’s Christmas Celebration in 2012 and 2013 click on the year to read our reports.

Visiting Central Florida in December? Here are the theme park holiday events.
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Universal Studios Orlando

It’s the most wonderful time of the year at Universal Orlando Resort. Beginning Dec. 6 through Jan. 3, families can create lifelong memories during Universal Orlando’s Holidays celebration. Kids from one to 92 can watch larger-than-life balloons float through the streets during the Macy’s Holiday Parade, hear Christmas music sensation Mannheim Steamroller perform beloved holiday classics with a modern twist and come face-to-face with The Grinch at Grinchmas,

At Universal Studios Florida, the Macy’s Holiday Parade will fill the streets with the same larger-than-life balloons seen in the famous New York City parade. Guests will be immersed in the spirit of the season with holiday characters, fantasy-filled floats and a tree-lighting ceremony with the big man himself, Santa Claus. Also, guests won’t want to miss the Chloe The Clown “Balloonicle,” a new addition to the parade that combines a towering balloon with a self-powered vehicle that roams the streets of Universal Studios.

Following the parade, the acclaimed musical group Mannheim Steamroller will take to the Music Plaza stage in Universal Studios to perform memorable holiday hits on Dec. 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, and 21.

At Universal’s Islands of Adventure, guests will smile from ear-to-ear during the heartwarming live show, “Grinchmas Who-liday Spectacular,” featuring The Grinch and the Whos from Who-ville, accompanied by an original musical score by Mannheim Steamroller. Guests can meet the mean, green one himself and the Whos daily and, on select dates, enjoy a special breakfast with the characters.

All theme park holiday entertainment – including Mannheim Steamroller concerts – is included as part of park-to-park or multi-day admission to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. We have never been invited to attend this event so unfortunately, we don’t have any first-had knowledge. I do know I would love to go someday.

Walt Disney World

I have already told you about Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party, A Frozen Christmas Wish and Candlelight Processional for this year. Don’t forget you can get your shopping done at Downtown Disney, celebrate with Epcot’s Christmas Around the World and catch the Osborne Spectacle of Dancing Lights at Disney’s Hollywood Studios too.

As you can see there is plenty to do to celebrate Christmas in Central Florida throughout the month of December. Will you be visiting any of these special events? Leave me a comment and let me know what you have planned.

The post Holiday Events at the Central Florida Theme Parks 2014 appeared first on The Mom Maven.

This event is a family favorite each year but this one started off horribly. I understand all about Disney crowds and while I usually try to visit when crowds are lighter, I have never in my 42 years of visiting the Magic Kingdom been in a crowd like I was from 6:00-6:45pm on November 7, 2014, and I hope I never am again.

photo courtesy of Disney

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom later than planned. Our traveling party was myself, my husband, Ron and our 8yo friend Matthew. We all love “Frozen” and Matthew especially loves Olaf so we were excited to see the new “A Frozen Holiday Wish” show and lighting of the castle dream lights. The crowd was lining Main Street like there was a parade coming, which there wasn’t. As we approached the hub we found an ok spot with some tree interference right on a rope line. We were late, it would have to do. After standing in this area for about 5 minutes, we were told by the cast member holding the rope that she would be moving the rope and we could move forward towards the next rope, but we had to stay inside the tape line. We moved up, squished in the taped off area and figured we had been blessed by having an open area in front of us so that our sight lines were much improved.

As show time approached guests were getting angry because there was a lot of reserved handicapped space that wan’t being used. There could easily fit a hundred or more people in this area. In all honesty, if I was in a wheelchair I wouldn’t have wanted to be there because of the throngs of people in front of the castle. Someone in a wheelchair had no chance of seeing what was happening on stage.

Anyway, as the show started, many of the lovely people in the back of the castle section lifted their young children onto their shoulders, making it impossible for those of us behind them to see.

We listened to the show, saw the pretty lights and then things got even worse. No one moved. We heard lots of people saying things like, “That’s it?” “I waited in this crowd for that?” and other similar things, some with language I would never type here. The lady next to me got into a shouting match with cast member Ron about all of the empty space for the handicapped area and how she was sure some of the people they let in there weren’t even handicapped. Cast member Ron even offered to bet her they all were-it was not behavior becoming of a Disney Cast Member…at all.

Next the cast members started hollering for everyone to start moving out of the hub. Unfortunately, the people on the perimeter hadn’t started moving yet, more than 5 minutes after the show ended! How could the middle move when the edges were standing strong? Finally, people in my area said, let’s just start walking so we did. We formed a line and tried to weave our way towards Tomorrowland. As we were walking and saying, “excuse me” I heard a lady yell and then I was smacked on the back! This wasn’t getting bumped in a crowd, I was hit. I turned around to see an older lady with her hand raised. I said, “Did you just hit me?” she said she did because I had knocker her over. 1. I hadn’t knocked her over 2. If I had tried she couldn’t have fallen anyway due to the crowd around her. I told her I didn’t think I had done it, I said I was sorry if I had and then I kept walking. The people behind me in line said I should have hit the lady, but I wouldn’t do that. We finally made our way to Tomorrowland and the crowd finally thinned out a bit. It was a horrible way to start off Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party that’s for sure.

Later in the evening, while at the media reception, I was chatting with a cast member about the crazy crowd. He agreed it was poorly planned and unsafe and it is only going to get worse the closer we get to Christmas.

How to Avoid the Crowd

1. Unless you have a die-hard “Frozen” fan in your party, just skip the show and the hub area from 5:45-6:45pm every evening from now through the holiday season.
2. IF you are going to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party there is an 8:00pm showing of “A Frozen Holiday Wish” go see that one since the day guests will be out of the park the crowd will be lighter.
3. If you want to avoid the crowd altogether, just watch my friend John’s video below.

I truly hope Disney figures out a way to manage the crowd at this show better. I’m sure having many more cast members manning the area would help. I think they may even need to find a way to make some kind of general announcements because what they are currently doing isn’t enough.

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While I personally would not decorate my house with the things found in this shop, I know there are tons of Haunted Mansion enthusiasts out there who will find these items to die for.

My favorite item in the store is the women’s Ghost Host t-shirt.

If you are doing some interior decorating, you might want this candlestick.

My friend Chris really wanted to bring home this Haunted Mansion sign replica.

Here is a unique set of sticky notes.

These bookends are pretty cool!

The item that has people rushing to Memento Mori is the “spirit photo”. Personally I find these kind of repulsive but while we were in the store several people had them done, including my friend Chris Reid and his fiance, Heather. They said they planned to frame them and put them on their mantle…ewww. Here is a photo of both parts of Chris’ lenticular “spirit photo”. If you are into this kind of stuff I guess it could be a cool souvenir for under $20.00.

Are you a Haunted Mansion fan? Are you excited to shop at Memento Mori? I’d love to hear your thoughts on these questions and on the items I shared from the store.

The post Memento Mori Now Open at Walt Disney World appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party takes place from 7:00 PM to midnight, on November 7, 10, 13, 14, 16, 20, 21 and 30; and December 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 19, 2014. Tickets start at $67 per person and can be purchased at DisneyWorld.com.

Photo courtesy of Disney

Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party Happenings

New for 2014

A FROZEN Holiday Wish Join Anna, Elsa, Kristoff and Olaf at 6:15pm at the Castle Stage. Get swept up in the spirit as Elsa uses her powers to create a sparkling, icy holiday Cinderella Castle.

Seasonal Favorites

• Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade
• Celebrate the Season Show
• Totally Tomorrowland Christmas Show
• Holiday Wishes: Celebrate the Spirit of the Season fireworks spectacular
• Snowfall on Main Street
• Complimentary hot cocoa and cookies
• Meet and Greet with your favorite characters dressed in their holiday finest

Have you ever been to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party? What is your favorite part of this holiday event?

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photo courtesy of Disney

New Sailings for Disney Magic and Disney Wonder – In 2010, the Disney Magic will sail to Europe for an unprecedented five-month season of Northern European and Mediterranean cruises.  Book-ending the summer season of 12-night Northern European Capitals cruises, the Disney Magic will once again return to the Mediterranean for 10- and 11-night cruises, with three new ports of call – Tunis in northern Africa, the island nation of Marta, and Ajaccio, Corsica.  In the summer of 2010, the Disney Wonder will sail four- and five-night cruises to Nassau, Key West and Disney’s private island, Castaway Cay.  In the summer of 2011, the Disney Wonder will sail for the first time to Alaska, with seven-night cruises calling on Tracy Arm, Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan.

Disney Cruise Line Expanding Its Fleet– The Walt Disney Company is expanding its successful cruise vacation business by adding two new ships, Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy, to set sail in 2011 and 2012, respectively.  Two decks taller than the existing Disney Magic and Disney Wonder, the new 1,250-passenger liners will more than double the passenger capacity for Disney Cruise Line.  Now under construction, the Disney Dream will offer magical innovations, engaging children’s spaces, family entertainment and immersive experiences for which Disney Cruise Line is renowned.

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Our view of the hub stage from the gold ring.

We waited, then practiced some more, waited, then they started checking out the camera shots. (We had a camera directly in front of us so…who knows, you may just see us Christmas morning!) We did several more practices and then they started recording shots of us dancing in this pseudo-flash mob. Finally at around 10am the Jonas Brothers arrived and briefed on how the shoot would go. Then we did several takes with the Jonas Brothers singing the entire song. I lost count of how many takes there were. At about 11:30am we were finally finished, hot (the sun had come out and it warmed up significantly), tired and very hungry.

The Disney Cast Members tried to herd everyone to Main Street to be in the audience for the taping of the parade but most of the people left to hit the rides and get lunch, which is exactly what we did. We enjoyed a lunch at Pecos Bill’s and rode a few rides before we headed back to Main Street USA via the Walt Disney World Railway. The area where they were filming were jam packed so we didn’t bother to fight the crowd. We did however get to see Kelly Ripa being her crazy self. While they were filming part of the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Parade Kelly was dancing around and my husband captured this video.

After watching some of the Christmas parade taping we rode a few more rides before catching the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade. Once the parade was over we headed out of the park. We had a wonderful weekend but, all good things must come to an an end.

Don’t forget to watch the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade on ABC, check local listings for times.

The post Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade Taping Day 3 appeared first on The Mom Maven.

In 2007 we were blessed to receive tickets to be a part of day 1 of taping, which was the acts that perform in front of the castle. That day we saw the Dancing with the Stars cast, Patti Labelle and Jessica Simpson. We have no idea who we will be seeing this year.

This year Thursday will be spent recording the castle acts. Friday morning we need to be in the park at 7am to learn some choreography for the opening number, that should be fun, and Saturday is the taping of the actual parade down Main Street USA. Being in the audience means a lot of standing around, 4 hours a day of it in fact, but it also means that once our work is done we can play in the Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day.

Cold, rainy weather is headed to Disney World today and tomorrow so we may be looking like drown rats, I hope not though. I will be twit picing, whrrling, facebooking and blogging this weekend so stay tuned to find out which acts we see.

I am also looking forward to hopefully meeting up with some of my Sorcerer Radio friends like Michelle, Kristen and Aljon. I might get to meet up with a few Twitter friends too so there is a lot to look forward to despite the weather.

The post Magic Kingdom Bound appeared first on The Mom Maven.

We ordered a few different appetizers off the menu so we could test them. None of them were foods I cared for so, I didn’t try any. Our server shared with us the story behind the famous Cobb salad, which was originally created in 1937 at the Original Brown Derby in Hollywood by Robert Cobb for theatre magnate Sid Grauman.  In case you didn’t know the Cobb Salad is made up of finely chopped greens, turkey breast, egg, bacon, tomatoes, crumbled bleu cheese, avocado, chives and Cobb dressing.

For my entree I chose the Grilled Rib Eye Steak – with arugula, crispy sweet onions, gorgonzola, red bliss potatoes, and oven-dried tomato vinaigrette and it was to die for! For dessert I chose the signature dessert of the Hollywood Brown Derby, the Grapefruit Cake. It was good but I enjoyed helping Tina finish off her Bananas Foster much better!

Have you ever eaten at the Hollywood Brown Derby? What is your favorite menu item? Leave me a comment and let’s talk.

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