Walt Disney World Favorites and Tips October 29, 2008

Since I used to be a cast member at Walt Disney World and I go back to visit almost every year, I often get asked for my favorites and tips. So here they are!

* Ask to sit in the front with the conductor on the monorail. It’s cool.
* On main street in Magic Kingdom, all the writing on the windows are the “credits” for the park. Walt’s credit is above the ice cream parlor on the window facing Cinderella’s castle.
* If you want to ride Spaceship Earth (the ride in the big ball in Epcot), do it later in the day. The lines are LONG in the morning because everyone walks in and stops there first but in the evening no one is in line.
* In Magic Kingdom, the best place to view a parade is the Main Street train station second level, if you get there early enough there are chairs up there. Second choice is Frontier Land. Also, lines for rides are shorter during parade times.

Here are my favorite rides/activities in each park!

Magic Kingdom
-Spectromagic Parade
-Pirates of the Carribean
-It’s a Small World
-Splash Mountain
-Space Mountain
-Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
-Haunted Mansion
-Daytime Parade (they change this but it is aways awesome)

Hollywood Studios
-Fantasmic (this is actually my #1 favorite thing in Disney World!)
-Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
-Tower of Terror
-Great Movie Ride

Animal Kingdom
-Dinosaur
-Expedition Everest
-Kilimanjaro Safari
-It’s Tough to Be a Bug

Epcot
-Test Track
-Drinking around the World. This isn’t an official activity but a fun one! Start in Mexico or Canada and have a drink at every country until you reach the other side. I’ve actually never been able to complete it!

There is so much yummy deliciousness in WDW it is hard to choose. But I have and here are my favorite eating spots! If it is marked with an *, you should call (407) WDW-DINE (939-3463) to make reservations.

Magic Kingdom
-Main Street Bakery; the cookies here are SO amazing!
-Pineapple Whip in Adventure Land by the Tiki Room
-Turkey Legs in Frontier Land
-Liberty Tree Tavern*; kinda like Thanksgiving dinner, this one is yummy and Minnie Mouse & friends come to your table!

Epcot
In Epcot I like to grab snacks from the different worlds but the only thing I’ve ALWAYS grabbed is pastries from Boulangerie Patisserie in France.

Hollywood Studios
-Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater*; it’s like a drive-in movie! So cool!

Animal Kingdom
-Donald’s Safari Breakfast*; some fun dishes with Donald and Mickey coming to your table!

Any Park
-Fresh Pineapple Spears. I have no idea why they are so good but they are!

That’s it for now! Share your favorites and tips in the comments!

Fav Thing: TravBuddy.com June 5, 2008

Hi, my name is Monica and I’m addicted to TravBuddy.com. Whew, it feels good to type that out load. But seriously, I’m so addicted! My friend Brian told me about it like a week ago and ever since I’ve checked it obsessively! It’s basically facebook/myspace for travelers and I’m loving it!

I know what you’re thinking –Really, Monica? Another social networking site? YES!!!! Let me tell you why. I’m headed to Europe tomorrow and I’ve already made plans to meet up with a group of girls in Madrid and watch soccer! I also got an invitation to go drinking in London which I only said no to because I will have teenagers with me. The people on the site are welcoming, friendly, ready to meet people and ready to travel. What else could I ask for in an online community? Oh, that’s right, the ability to smile at cute people. TravBuddy.com has it!

So take your happy self on over to TravBuddy.com and be my friend and smile at me! :)

Fav Thing: Austin Airport May 5, 2008

For those of you that don’t travel much you should make you way to Austin. Even if you don’t leave the airport you get a real feel for the city and that’s what makes Austin’s airport my favorite!

It’s just the right size — small enough that you can walk across the street to get your rental car but big enough to have live music and lots of food & store options.

As for the food, you won’t find a McDonald’s in this airport and I love that! It feature’s Austin’s finest, Salt Lick BBQ, Amy’s Ice Cream, and Mangia Pizza.

The shopping is full of Texas pride! You’ll see a lot of burnt orange and longhorns. :)

And last, but definitely not least, you’ve just landed in the Live Music Capital of the World! And the airport doesn’t forget that with live performances every week day!

This is what an airport should be, convenient and full of local culture! Nice work Austin-Bergstrom!

Fav Flight Search Site: Kayak.com March 28, 2008

Kayak.com is the best flight search out there. Period. When you search, it searches all the different sites and brings you back a mega list in an easy to read interface. Then, Kayak starts to really shine with its awesome filters! You can choose specific airlines or airports. You can tell Kayak you want to fly between certain hours. You can tell Kayak that you only want an hour layover. You filter to exactly what you want and Kayak shows you. Try it, you’ll love it as much as I do.

Fav Photo Thing: Picasa December 11, 2007

Many of you know that I LOVE taking photographs. I travel a lot, my camera is usually with me, and I end up taking many, many, many more photos than I need. For example, I took 1200 photos in Peru, using up 5 gigs of memory. Thankfully, I was able to narrow the 1200 pictures down to 150 to share with my friends.

How did I pick 150 pics out of 1200?? By using my handy, dandy, favorite photo tool, Picasa. Google has made this tool SO EASY it’s ridiculous. Oh and did I mention it is FREE? Love that!

After downloading Picasa, it will scan your computer to find all your photos. Then you can search through them in many ways and fix basic image mistakes easy. Red eye? Check. Crooked Photos? Check. Bad coloring? Check. In fact, you can fix more than one photo at once using their batch editing tools (my fav is I’m Feeling Lucky).

Now that you’ve fixed all your photos, you should be ready to share them with your friends. Join Picasa Web Albums. Once again, it’s FREE. Then you can upload an entire album to the web from Picasa.

And now, for my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE part of Picasa — you can download entire albums with one click from Picasa Web. To my knowledge, no other photo-sharing site offers this. I love this because I am tired of mailing around picture cds to my friends across the world.

Ok, by now you’ve had enough of my gushing about Picasa. If you don’t have it, get it: http://picasa.google.com