It's been awhile....

WOW! Time certainly does fly. Last time I posted a blog, I was just getting back from my July 4th trip, since then so much has happened, including me moving to Florida, which has been amazing. Probably the biggest thing that happened since then was the announced Fantasyland expansion, which if you scroll down the page you will see I posted the leaked plans for it back in June. They announced that at the D23 Expo, where they also announced they would be bringing Star Tours into the 21st century by making it 3D and adding all new video to the ride. They also announced they would be refurbishing Muppet Vision 3D and making the film Disney Digital 3D, like the one over at Disney's California Adventure. Also Muppets related, they announced they would be making a new Muppets movie called "The cheapest movie ever made".

Speaking of the Muppets, they are part of Walt Disney World and Disneyland's new promotion this year: "Give a day, Get a Disney day". The promotion prompts you to volunteer at one of the places Disney has partnered with for this promotion for a day, and in return you get either free entrance into the park for however many in your family are volunteering (Max. 5), Fastpasses (similar to those given for your birthday), or donate the free day to a charity. The "What will you celebrate?" theme will also stay for this year. The Muppets have been a big part of the advertising so far, appearing in commercials and in TV appearances when they announced the promotion. I personally think this is great. I love that they are prompting people to volunteer and help others, and at the same time try to bring the Muppets back in the spotlight!

That brings us to Halloween at WDW and (mostly) Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. Being my first year living in Florida, this was my first time going to the party. Overall I thought it was WELL worth it, especially since I hadn't been. The parade was hands down the best I have ever seen at WDW and the fireworks were actually a lot better than expected. Being someone who would come down pretty much once a month from North Carolina usually, i've seen Wishes a lot. I thought HALLOwishes was basically just going to be the same thing with just more of a Halloween feel to it. Boy was I wrong though. Don't get me wrong, I love Wishes, just in my opinion they've been around a bit long and it's time for a change. I was captivated watching these and it was refreshing to see something new. Other than that, the candy for the most part was pretty decent and we had a great time.

Now we march on towards Food and Wine. Again, being new to living in Florida, this was my first time. I went twice with my family, Me of course being underage at 17, I could only enjoy the Food Part of this festival, but I didn't mind because it was a great experience still. Normally when we are at Epcot it usually winds up that we spend an overwhelming majority of the time in Future World because my brother and sister don't like the showcase that much. It was refreshing to spend a couple days just strolling around the World Showcase and stopping to taste the food and then going on the occasionally ride when we were done. The food for the most part was great. My favorite was the Chicken Urumqi. A close second though was the Spicy chicken sausage. This thing was one of the spiciest things I have EVER had.

So now that we've recapped most of the big happenings from the past 5 months, on to the present. Halloween has come and gone and the Christmas decorations are now up. That means the parks all decked out in holiday fashion, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party (Which I will be going to), the Osbourne Lights and the Lights of Winter.....Wait, Excuse my memory loss, Disney has scratched Lights of Winter for this Holiday season, saying "The Lights of Winter at Epcot has been enjoyed for years. But tech to operate the lights is obsolete, prompting us to retire the lights" via the official Disney Parks twitter page. Minutes later, they posted "Debuting at this year's Holidays Around the World at Epcot is a new gospel choir, "D'Vine Voices - Nov. 27 through Dec. 26". Oh, and did I mention that Space Mountain is back open for business? At least it is running in soft open status that is. The official opening date is 11/22, just in time for the Thanksgiving crowd. I myself have rode it, but will save my opinion on it for a future blog post just on Space Mountain.