On our way to Celebrate EPCOT's 30th and some Halloween Fun!

Hey everyone! Our Fall Trip has arrived. This will be the first time in 17 years I will be In Orlando without children! It will be bittersweet but the wife and I are going to make it up to kids this Spring with a Spring Break Trip. That way they can experience the New Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom. While we plan on having a blast down there, we are also going to take care of some business. We will be taking tons of pictures to share you and current/future clients!

We will be staying at the Pop Century Resort for our first time ever and be taking advantage of the FREE Dining plan(we upgraded from the quick-service to the standard dining plan).  While there we will  be sure to take the  jog across the lake to check out the new Arts of Animation Resort and see all that it has to offer!  If there is something you want to see or know about, let us know and we will try to get first hand info for you. Our schedule is not very tight but we do have some things planned and are more than willing to find out the best and most accurate information to share with you!

Here is what our Schedule looks like:

Day 1: We leave bright and early Wednesday Morning to hopefully be on the ground at Orlando International to hop the Disney's Magic Express by Noon. 

After we  hit the online check in counter, we plan on exploring the Pop Century Resort to get the lay of the land pick up our items we had the Disney World Personal Shopper grab for us.  From there hop a bus to spend the rest of the day at The Hollywood Studios and take in Fantasmic!

Day 2: Thursday will be a extremely fun long day. After an early morning Rental Car pick up. We are going to head over to Universal Orlando. We are going to spend a majority of the day at Island of Adventure, riding the newly re digitized Spiderman , filling up on ButterBeer, riding Dudley Do-Right Falls( one my favorite water rides), and going haywire buying souvenirs for the kiddos.  Then we are going to hop over to the Studios to take in a few rides and become Minions on Despicable Me before we take on Halloween Horror Nights. I am especially looking forward to the Walking Dead Maze and Penn&Teller's Las Vegas!

I am going to ride this over and over and over......

Day3: Friday we are going to be up bright and early  to take in a Character Breakfast at the Magic Kingdom 's Crystal Palace then spend of the rest of morning hours hitting up our favorite attractions and playing Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.   Midday we are going head over to the ESPN Wide World of Sports to check out the Health and Fitness expo and to get our stuff for the Happy Haunted  5k Trail Run. We will cruise back to the hotel for some pool time and rest before heading back the Magic Kingdom to enjoy Mickey' Not So Scary Halloween Party!!!! I really am looking forward to seeing HallowWishes.

Day 4: Saturday's plan is to get up early and arrive at ESPN for the 5k. We are in corral A with bibs #2224 and #2230, if your in the area be sure to stop on out cheer us on! After the race and we have picked up our medal  the rest of the night is up in the air, we are still debating about going to the Twilight 10 Miler party at the Hollywood Studios, we shall see how we feel. 

Days 5 :  Sunday will be fairly loose go with the flow day. We will be sure to hit the Animal Kingdom, partake in the EPCOT Wine &Harvest fest, and enjoy dinner at Fulton's Crab House in Downtown Disney!

Day 6: Monday will be a day entirely devoted to EPCOT to celebrate the 30th Anniversary. We will kick of the day grabbing fast passes for Soarin and trying to grab some of the special merchandise. Then take part in some of the scheduled events Closing the night out with a concert by the 90's group Sugar Ray and Illuminations with the 30th Anniversary tag!

Day 7: Tueday morning will be spent shipping various souvenirs home, packing, and maybe a quick whirl on the monorails before we hop the Magic Express back to Orlando International.

Be sure to watch our facebook page for updates about our trip! Stay tuned for exciting announcements and giveaways also upon our return.
Thank you all for Supporting Matt's Firehouse Family Vacations. Exciting things are just around the corner!!!!!

Before there was NextGen there was and is Pal Mickey

NextGen is the new buzzword around the Disneysphere and Disney is sinking major amounts of money into this project. The entire scope of the project is only known to those  directly involved in the research and implementation,  but pieces of information have found their way into blogs and guesses have been made to what it will entail.We have begun to see some testing of some of the features the NextGen project will have like  FastPass+ and the new phone App My Disney Experience but there really hasn't been a time table set for a complete roll out of the project yet. There are rumors and some facts presented that NextGen will run on the newly installed WIFI in the parks & resorts and that it will also use RFID technology. RFID technology is in full use at the new Arts of Animation Resort and RFID locks are starting to make their way into other resorts. The NextGen project has been heralded as something that will make guest experiences much more entertaining and save them time; increasing their satisfaction and overall experience at the Walt Disney Resort.While this project has been in the works for a number of years, I would argue the first piece of NextGen was tested and still can be found in use today at Walt Disney World in the form of Pal Mickey.

Pal Mickey 1.0 We have the first version. He is a small guy.

So what is this Pal Mickey? It was a neat little souvenir I picked up for my daughter back on one of trips in 2003…. It is a small plush Mickey Mouse that contains a microprocessor, a speaker, is powered by three AA batteries, and has an infrared receiver in its nose. This infrared receiver would allow it to communicate with a few hundred infrared transmitters around the parks and resorts on the Disney Property. When certain transmitters were in range Mickey would start to laugh and vibrate. You would then have to press his belly or squeeze his hand  so he could tell you  information about the immediate area, a parade, showtime reminders, tips on what costumed walkaround characters may be nearby, and attractions with short queue times. Kind of like a phone app without the phone.

 Pal Mickey was discontinued in October of 2008 and can still be found on eBay for purchase. Why is that important? There were three version released of Pal Mickey, all are said to still be able to work in the parks to this day. So in theory, if you bring a Pal Mickey into any of the Disney World Parks in Orlando, he should still work. Once you leave the park and are at home, Pal Mickey doesn’t become a mute useless souvenir. If you squeeze his hand or push his belly, he will tell jokes and play a few programmed games. He is supposed to have several hundred pre-recorded phrases, ours just keeps telling the same joke over and over.

His clip was just like a Cell phone belt clip, just with a Mouse hanging from it. 

Pal Mickey is a really cool idea and pricey souvenir. He looked stylish on your belt or hanging form a lanyard but the clip that allowed you to do this was not the most comfortable  He  provided some nice entertainment in the lines and through out the resorts. In my opinion, Pal Mickey could easily be considered NextGen 1.0. Why do you ask? Pal Mickey has been rumored to be able to track each individual device so it wouldn't play the same phrases over and over again also in theory tracking where you were in the park. This tracking is something that some people are  worried about the with use of RFID technology by Disney, because they could be able to track where you are on the resort and see what your spending your vacation dollars on. Practice for NextGen? Probably not, but a cool feature.If Disney is tracking me on property, more power to them. Maybe it could be used to track lost child? I am cool with that type of use.
Our Pal Mickey won't be joining us on our Adult trip this fall but may become a stowaway in one of our kids' suitcases for our spring break trip. Do you have a Pal Mickey? Have you brought him back to the park recently?

The Magic Kingdom will no longer be dry......

More information has been announced about the Be Our Guest Restaurant and is sure to cause some controversy. For the first time in its history, alcohol will be served at the Magic Kingdom theme park. It will only be served at this one location and only offered with dinner. The alcohol will be part of the theming and consist of  wine that will complement the French-inspired cuisine. There will also be  French beer and Belgian beers. The complete adult beverage menu can be found here!

What are you thoughts to this addition to the new FantasyLand?

The View has changed: The Magic Kingdom

Over the years, camera skills increase, technology gets better in cameras, and views change.

 Can you spot the differences from over the years in these two pictures taken from the same spot on top of The Contemporary Resort.

Click on the pictures for larger versions.

The Magic Kingdom Circa 2003 with a cheap camera.

New technology and better camera quality allowing more picture options for the novice picture taker developed into this panoramic view below.

The Magic kingdom from the same place Circa 201l, better Camera

This view of the Magic Kingdom is much different in 2012 thanks to the new Fantasyland.(Hopefully we can snap some shots this fall)

The view and cast of characters has also changed at Cinderella's Royal Table over the years.

Cinderella's Royal Table circa 2001 you were greeted by Aurora, Cinderella, and Prince Charming

Cinderella's Royal Table Circa 2003 you were greeted by Snow White and The Prince

 

Cinderella's Royal Table Circa 2011 The Throne has disappeared and so has the rest of the cast of Characters except good Ol' Cindy. PhotoPass Photogs  allows for better quality pictures as well.

How has the view changed for you and your family over the years?

Before Duffy The Disney Bear there was The Disney Bear

Duffy the Disney Bear has taken DisneyWorld and DisneyLand by storm, becoming one of the must have souvenirs when visiting the mouse! Duffy has meet & greet photo ops and also has different outfits that can be purchased to dress him up. Duffy has become so popular, that limits have been placed on the number of outfits and number of bears that can be bought at one time. This is to ensure a fair chance for other guests to be able to dress Duffy up and also because one can make a small mint form selling the outfits to buyers over seas. Quite the feet for a Disney Character that has never been in a Disney Movie or cartoon. To bridge that gap he does have storyline here in the States that allows him to fit in the stable of Disney Characters. That story goes like this:

It is Duffy, how many hidden Mickeys can you find?

"One day, Mickey Mouse was getting ready to set sail on a long sea voyage. Minnie Mouse made him a special teddy bear to take with him so he would never be lonely. Minnie presented her hand sewn bear to Mickey in a duffel bag. Mickey loved the bear and named him Duffy.
As Mickey and Duffy sailed on their journey, they visited all sorts of exciting places and make new friends along the way. At the end of their travels, they sailed back home for a wonderful reunion with Minnie.
Mickey and Duffy shared their magical memories and photos with Minnie, who was thrilled that Duffy was such a great friend and companion for Mickey."

This hidden Mickey is on his bottom.

Our household has also caught the Duffy fever, so it is almost a guarantee that when we visit  Walt Disney World a new Duffy(or two) will becoming home with us along with several outfits.



Many people don't  know that before Duffy's debut in October of 2010 in the United States, he had a completely different back story,  look, and feel (little heavier, not so soft and course fur) in his first incarnation back in 2002 at Walt Disney World. Duffy was previously known as "The Disney Bear". His  original story was something along the lines of this:

" Mickey brought his favorite bear to the Magic Kingdom. Mickey sat in front of the castle wishing that he had a friend with him to share the excitement and magic of the park. Tinker-bell appears and sprinkles pixie dust on Mickey's bear, bringing it to life. Mickey then hugs the bear and a Mickey-shape appears on the bear's face, forever bonding Mickey and his new friend."

The story was presented on his tag and was done in nice story book fashion. Most of all it worked.(well on this Dad who made sure his daughter got one ....or two.) The story was not the only difference, the major difference was in the bear itself. It came in the colors of  Valentine red, pink, green, blue, lavender, grey, black, white, chocolate, caramel and  Duffy's current color honey gold.

Two of the Original Disney Bears..looks just like Duffy, feels much different.

Signature hidden Mickey on the bottom.

"The Disney Bear" was a flop though and disappeared from the parks by 2005, so if you arer lucky to have one these original bears with the story tag, you now not only have a souvenir but a souvenir that is a collectible and part of the evolution of Duffy. 

We are fortunate enough to have 2 of the bears that are gently used and will always have a home here at Matt's Firehouse Family Vacations Headquarters.

Duffy hanging with his cousins The Disney Bears!

 Do you have other Souvenirs that have evolved over the years? Maybe some Disney Bears of your own or a Pal Mickey(more to come on him later)? Tell us about them!!!