Mellow Wanderer

Tag: Disney

  • May The Fourth Be With You! How Star Wars Got Its Own Holiday.

    May The Fourth Be With You! How Star Wars Got Its Own Holiday.

    Leave it the Mouse to whip Star Wars fans into a yearly frenzy. Disney’s marketing gurus coined May 4th Star Wars Day when the mammoth media and entertainment company bought the Star Wars franchise in 2012, along with Lucasfilm, the movie production company spreaheaded by George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars.

    Disney needed a vehicle to generate excitement at its theme parks for its new acquisition and May The Fourth Be With You did just that. Theme park goers were encouraged to dress up in Star Wars character costumes.

    Disney Image

    Now the unofficial holiday has taken off and become a cultural phenomenon. Social media is flooded with Stars Wars memes every May 4th. Specialty apparel such as t-shirts, posters, mugs, and just about everything else is hawked online and in brick-and-mortar stores.

    Of course, Disney stills makes a big deal of it with commemorative pins and events at its theme parks around the world. So get into it. It’s fun! I have. Take a look at my tongue-n-cheek video below as my better half was driving me around town. 😂 May The Fourth Be With You!

  • Beat The Crowds And Long Lines At Walt Disney World

    Beat The Crowds And Long Lines At Walt Disney World

    My video tour of the Magic Kingdom had one mission: Have fun and experience more attractions with the least amount of time waiting in line. A trip to Walt Disney World is often survival of the fittest. You will walk a lot, sweat profusely, and be among throngs of people. However, with some planning, before and during your trip, you can have an enjoyable, fun time. I independently tested a mobile app called Lines created by TouringPlans.com, a subscription website that costs me under $20 a year. (NOTE: I did not receive any compensation for doing this story.) Lines helped me navigate the Magic Kingdom by recommending the best days and times to visit the park based on crowd levels and attraction wait times.

  • The State Of Florida Is A COVID Hot Spot As Walt Disney World Reopens

    The State Of Florida Is A COVID Hot Spot As Walt Disney World Reopens

    Photo: WDW News Today/Twitter

    Intensive care beds at many Florida hospitals are as hard to come by as getting a Disney resort room at the height of tourist season during normal times. Yet despite the pandemic crisis in the Sunshine State, the world’s most popular tourist destination is resuming theme park operations this weekend (Saturday, July 11), albeit at a significantly reduced scale. Universal Orlando, Seaworld, and Busch Gardens in Tampa preceded Disney, as those theme parks reopened in June.

    Photo: WDW Today News/Twitter

    Photo: WDW News Today/Twitter

    While Disneyland in California postponed its summer reopening indefinitely due to a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in that state, Disney World is moving ahead with its phased-in reopening. Early previews for Disney Passholders of a re-imagined experience at the Magic Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom show a much different world at The Most Magical Place On Earth. Park reservations are required, and masks are mandatory in the parks, including on all rides and attractions. The only mask exception is for eating and drinking. Social distancing is also mandatory. The line queues leading to rides and attractions are dotted with floor markers, where people and families stand at least six feet apart. Disney has also reconstructed attraction entry and exit areas with plexiglass barriers to limit contact. Some attractions where groups of people ride together either have plexiglass barriers or rows are blocked-off to maintain distance. Forget about having your child hug their favorite Disney character and snapping a picture of the moment. Character encounters are at a distance, meaning no close contact.  A Disney visit is often a break from reality and an escape from life’s everyday worries, but now there are public reminders throughout the theme parks and resort alerting visitors to do their part in reducing the spread of infection. Some die-hard Disney fans will flock to Orlando to take advantage of the smaller crowds and the shorter lines. For them, the reward is worth the risk. Just know many of our nation’s leading public health experts believe a theme park visit is not yet a low-risk outing, especially in a COVID hot spot state like Florida.

    Here is a sampling of social media reaction from Disney Passholders who attended the reopening preview at the Magic Kingdom. (Photos: UG Series/Instagram)

  • Disney Your World At Home To Treat Theme Park Withdrawal

    Disney Your World At Home To Treat Theme Park Withdrawal

    With Disney and other theme parks closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are using their imaginations to create great escapes-something I think Walt Disney would be proud of since he inspired so many people to dream big. Now some Disney fans enthusiastically showcase their unique stay-at-home moments and talents on social media: the parody by a young couple on a pretend visit to Disney World, and the Texas family that created a livingroom version of the EPCOT attraction Soar’n. Maybe the next best thing to being there?

    Then there are the Disney culinary delights conjured in the kitchen. Mickey waffles, anyone? Perhaps a churro? Somehow, someway, the faithful are making their brand of magic. I planned to visit EPCOT at Walt Disney World this month (May 2020) for the International Flower and Garden Festival. I am an avid gardener, and the festival is such a wonderful opportunity to get some fresh new ideas, chat with garden experts, and marvel at the wonderful, elegant, and humorous topiaries on display.
    My last festival visit was many years ago at this time of year and I longed to return, but a busy life just got in the way. I was committed to being there in 2020. May is also a great time to visit Disney World because it is considered a gap month between the spring break and summer seasons when crowds swell. I pouted internally like a 12-year-old at missing, yet again, this year’s opportunity to go. (A man of a certain age should never pout openly to the rest of the family. Be strong, I told myself.) So, instead of driving to Orlando, I did the next best thing: I pretended with childlike imagination at home. I have a Mickey statue and he’s made in the form of a gardener. It was gifted to me several years ago. So, I placed Mickey at several different locations in my garden and snapped a few photos with my iPhone. I retouched the photos a bit in an app called Snapseed to give Mickey a little visual makeover. It was a sunny mid-morning and the air was cool, a rare comfortable day in May by Florida standards. My garden is bursting with color this time of year so the setting was perfect, just like you’d expect at the International Flower and Garden Festival but at a much lesser scale, of course. I placed Mickey next to the window boxes of impatiens. That was such an obvious location. I then moved around the garden looking for the best spots, just like a fashion photographer seeking to showcase their most prized model. Only my model is made of plastic and didn’t talk, didn’t move. A perfect cooperative subject! Was all this silly? Yes! Fun? Absolutely! It was my great escape for just a few minutes. I hope to see the real thing in 2021. Be well, be safe.

     

    Click on the photos to see Mickey in the Mellow Wanderer Garden.

    [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”19″ gal_title=”DISNEY GARDEN”]

    Once it’s safe to travel again and visit the Orlando theme parks, check out the resources below that helped me plan previous visits. NOTE: Mellow Wanderer did not receive compensation or endorsements. Suggestions, thoughts, and opinions are my own.

    The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World guidebook series.

    The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World with Kids series.

    Touringplans.com has real-time attraction wait times, crowd calendars, and more.