Be Our Guest!
Dec 9, 2012 Travel
Last week I travelled to Disney World for the grand opening of the expanded areas of Fantasyland. And while the new rides are awesome, my favorite part wasn’t a ride, it was a restaurant. Specifically, the building.
The Be Our Guest restaurant is housed in The Beast’s Castle, from Beauty and the Beast, high on a hill.
The walk over the stone bridge to the castle does an excellent job of setting the mood for what’s to come.
And once inside, you’re transported into the world of The Beast. There are three dining areas: the beautiful Rose Gallery, the dark and mysterious West Wing, and of course, the Ballroom.
The Ballroom is one of the most beautiful rooms I’ve ever been in. From the gorgeous ceiling to the mosaics on the floor to the “view” of the French countryside with falling snow, no detail has been left out.
The Rose Gallery is just as beautiful, but more intimate. The centerpiece of the room is a giant music box, with Belle and The Beast dancing on top. The same music from the ballroom can be heard in the Rose Gallery, but re-scored for a music box and in sync with what’s playing in the other rooms.
The West Wing is dark and mysterious, and the music has a foreboding, sad tone. Details from the movie are everywhere.
For lunch, which is more casual, guests put in their orders on touchscreens and the food is brought to them at their tables. The evening meals are more formal, without the touchscreens, and it’s worth noting that the Rose Gallery is closed during dinner.
The menu includes dishes inspired by Beauty and the Beast, and everything is made to order. Freshness is a focus, with even the ketchup being made from scratch.
And I’m thrilled to say that I was able to try the gray stuff, and it’s delicious! Rather mousse-like.
I also ran into The Beast on the way out, and told him a secret in his furry ear.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7 and 16. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Be Our Guest, Disney World, New Fantasyland
The New Test Track Is Open!
Dec 8, 2012 Travel
The original version of Test Track was one of my favorite rides at Epcot. I was sad to see it go, but was excited for what was to come. I got to try out the brand new Test Track Thursday night, and it did not disappoint.
Where the old version was all about safety – lots of crash test dummy imaging – the new Test Track – presented by Chevrolet – is about design, power, speed, and efficiency. In fact, designing a concept car is a big part of the experience.
When you first enter the main part of the ride, your party (up to three people) is given a little white card you can wear around your wrist. You swipe this card at a design station, and then you can make choices for your car ranging from the cosmetic, like shape and color, to what kind of engine. (As fun as this was the first time, it’s worth noting that the FastPass lane bypasses most of this, letting you make just a few simple choices.)
The most awesome car ever, designed by me and my friend Heidi
After you’ve designed a car you get into a Test Track vehicle, and away you go! There’s a lot of neon and wild turns, and a fast ending that had everyone in our car – me, Heidi, her husband, and son – squealing.
We’re all such dorks – as soon as we saw our reflections we had to get a picture!
Here’s the final run of the ride, the speed test:
Just as I predicted (yelled) in the video, when the ride snapped our picture I was holding my camera in front of my face – but I wasn’t the only one!
After the ride we got to see how our concept cars scored. The green car – designed by Heidi’s seven-year-old son Danny – beat our car by twelve points!
Then we got to make a commercial starring our car, and email it to ourselves.
We even got to drive our little car around a virtual track!
And, of course, check out some shiny Chevrolet cars.
We all agreed that the new ride seems longer – and faster – than the original version, and all of the interaction is a fun addition. Great job, Disney! Thanks so much for letting me be part of the grand opening.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7 and 16. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Disney World, Test Track
Jordin Sparks & Ginnifer Goodwin Cut The Ribbon For New Fantasyland
Dec 6, 2012 Travel
This morning was really special: it was the official grand opening of the new Fantasyland! “Once Upon A Time” actress Ginnifer Goodwin and “American Idol” winner Jordin Sparks teamed up to cut the ribbon to officially open the biggest expansion in Magic Kingdom history. They were joined on stage by Tom Staggs, Chairman of Disney World Parks and Resorts, and Mickey Mouse (natch!).
I’m such a dork, but I couldn’t help myself: I saved some of the confetti!
My friend Molly and I were totally stalking Walt Disney Parks and Resorts (USA and France) President Meg Crofton. And her purse.
After the ceremony, Jordin Sparks sang a medley of Disney Songs in front of Cinderella’s Castle.
And yes, I saved some confetti from that ceremony too. :-)
Such a fun morning!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7 and 16. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Disney World, New Fantasyland
Why I’m At Disney World (Other than, Because I’m Really Lucky)
Dec 6, 2012 Travel
One of the great things about working with the wonderful people at Disney is that they don’t do anything half way. I didn’t just get an invitation to come down to Disney World for the grand opening of the new, expanded Fantasyland, I got an entire storybook.
Disney is all about the details, and the new Fantasyland does not disappoint. I was able to check it out last night, and was completely blown away by what they’ve done. They’ve doubled the size of Fantasyland, and added some amazing experiences.
The change that will probably excite the most people is the new Dumbo ride. There are now two of them! Which means twice as many kids getting on this beloved ride. Plus, the waiting area is now out of the sun.
Goofy’s Barnstormer ride has been open for a while (we went on it in the spring), and it’s a fun coaster for kids not ready for a bigger coaster.
How cool is it that you can see Space Mountain in the background?
And a bigger coaster is coming, being built right now. Modeled after a ride through a mine with the Seven Dwarfs, I can’t wait for this (coasters are my favorite).
Future roller coaster!
There’s now a place (indoors!) devoted to getting pictures taken – and goofing around – with four favorite Disney characters:
The new ride devoted to the story of The Little Mermaid is just wonderful – you get to relive all of your favorite scenes and songs from the movie as you travel around in a big clam shell!
And your old favorites are still there, like the carousel.
I haven’t gotten to do Enchanted Tales with Belle yet, but everybody who has has raved about it. Kids get to be part of the experience, acting out scenes from Beauty and the Beast!
And I’m saving the new restaurant, Be Our Guest, for a separate post, because it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.
Can’t wait to tell you more, this has been so exciting!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7 and 16. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Disney World, New Fantasyland
What jetBlue Could Do Better Next Time
Oct 30, 2012 Travel
I originally titled this “jetBlue Is Letting Me Down This Time” but changed it. jetBlue is letting me down right now, but I’m trying to keep in mind what they’re going through right now instead of simply bitching about what they’re doing wrong.
Quick background: my husband, kids and I flew to Providenciales, Turks & Caicos on Friday for a three-night trip. On Sunday morning jetBlue let us know via email that our Monday flight home was cancelled, due to the impending hurricane, and that we had been rescheduled for Wednesday.
My husband decided to leave on Sunday. There were still seats on the one-and-only flight to JFK, and he wanted to make sure our house was OK.
As of now, our Wednesday flight home is cancelled, and we have not been rescheduled onto another flight. In fact, we’ve had no word from jetBlue at all – I just happened to check their website earlier to see if our flight was still OK, and saw that its status was cancelled.
I am not complaining that my flights keep getting cancelled. JFK airport isn’t even open yet, and I definitely don’t want to get on a plane and fly anywhere before it is safe to do so. But I am spending way more time and energy trying to deal with jetBlue than I should have to.
I’m extraordinarily lucky. I’m not stuck in an airport. I’ve had enough notice about cancellations that I haven’t had to pack up and check out of my hotel, only to check in again. And while I don’t have a convenient way to call you, I at least have internet. It would be wonderful if I could use the tools I have at hand to solve this problem without incurring any extra charges.
Here are some steps that I hope jetBlue takes in the future to make things easier for its customers when travel is impacted by weather.
Improve your phone system. We’re staying in a hotel that charges $1.10 per minute for calls (we don’t have cell service). We wanted to get my husband out of here on Sunday, which according to your website was possible, but in order to switch the flight we had to call. I wasted a lot of time and money on Sunday morning trying to call you at the number listed for Turks & Caicos, without success. When I would try, the call would connect, but after about 30 seconds of trying to get me to a customer service rep, it would tell me that the call was ending and that I should try back later. Each time I tried, it cost me $1.10.
If your phone system would put me on hold and get me in a queue and give me an estimate for how long I would have to wait, I could decide for myself if it was worth it, if I wanted to spend the time and money waiting. And I could know that with each minute waiting, I was getting closer to talking to someone. Instead, I just kept calling back for an hour, never getting anywhere. I feel like every other time I’ve called, you’ve had a normal hold system. Why change it now? Was your system simply overwhelmed? I understand long wait times. I don’t understand the actual phone system not being able to handle the calls.
Another option would be to not pick up. For a very long time, before everybody had cell phones and free long distance packages at home, calling Walt Disney World meant almost endless ringing. But that was done on purpose, so that you didn’t incur long distance charges on hold. Once someone could help you, your call connected. A number like this would be a great option for people calling from outside of the US.
Allow online changes. The fact that we had to deal with you over the phone was ridiculous in the first place. You listed a change code on your website. I should have been able to use that code and change my husband’s flight, online. In the end we couldn’t get through on the phone, and couldn’t make the change online, so we just had to buy him a new one-way ticket and hope that you would refund the increased fare difference after the fact. You did, so I give you credit for that, but it was an avoidable headache.
Send out automatically generated emails as soon as a flight is cancelled. I’ve known for more than five hours that my flight tomorrow was cancelled, but only because I happened to check the status myself. In retrospect I should have known that something was up when I didn’t get a check-in email earlier today, but someone else staying at my hotel on the same flight did get that email, and checked in, and also didn’t receive any notice from jetBlue that the flight was cancelled.
So I’m kind-of in limbo here. I have not officially been told that I don’t have to go to the airport tomorrow, but my flight is listed as cancelled. When I try to look under “Manage Flights” I’m listed as confirmed for a trip that starts on October 31st, but clicking the little drop-down arrow does not work and I can’t get details.
When I try to check in, I’m told that my flight’s status has changed and that I need to see someone at a full-service jetBlue counter. And I still have not received an email from jetBlue saying that my flight is cancelled. Very frustrating.
So that’s my advice. There’s so much in this situation that you have no control over, it would be great if you had a better handle on the things you do control.
Looking forward to getting back home at some point.
UPDATE: I was finally able to connect with jetBlue via twitter. I had tweeted to them on Sunday, with no answer, which was disappointing since they’ve helped me on twitter several times in the past. But it wasn’t surprising that I got no answer, given what was going on at the time.
They checked into my situation and told me that we had been automatically rescheduled on a flight…for Saturday. As frustrating as that is, at least I know and can plan ahead. I can buy more chocolate, for one thing.
Our quick three-night getaway has turned into eight. Feeling a little like Gilligan. I didn’t bring as many clothes as Lovey Howell, but at least I have a washer and dryer. When the Harlem Globetrotters show up, I will know that this vacation has officially jumped the shark.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Hurricane Sandy, jetBlue, Travel
How To Survive Hurricane Sandy: Be Somewhere Else
Oct 30, 2012 Travel
Not practical advice, I know. But that’s how I’m getting through Hurricane Sandy, because the kids and I are in Turks & Caicos right now.
We didn’t mean to still be here. This was supposed to be a quick weekend trip, and we were scheduled to get back to NYC earlier today (Monday). But all flights home were cancelled, and we were rescheduled onto a flight for Wednesday. Honestly, looking at pictures from NYC, I won’t be surprised if that gets delayed until Thursday. [UPDATE: We finally made it home Saturday night.]
I’m not complaining, of course. I can’t think of a better place to be stranded. If it hadn’t been for the kids needing to be in school, we’d have planned on a longer trip anyway. School is cancelled today and tomorrow, so the kids will probably miss the same amount of school they would have without the storm. Fiona’s panicking a little about that, I think – she was sitting at the dining room table in our hotel room earlier, doing math problems. Keep in mind, we didn’t bring any schoolwork, she just grabbed a pad and pen and gave herself homework.
Thanks to hotel TV and free WiFi, I can obsess about the storm just as easily from down here, without being in actual danger. Which also means that I’m having a lot of guilt about everyone I know who is stuck in the storm’s path (and if you know me, you know I rarely feel guilt; this is an event). And I’m very worried about my husband, who grabbed the last flight out of here on Sunday to get back to Brooklyn and take care of our house.
The weather down here hasn’t been completely unaffected by the storm, which rolled through right before we got here. While it has been hot and sunny, the beach was unbelievably windy Saturday and Sunday – a thousand needles hitting your skin kind of windy (I really have no idea how our plane landed on Friday). The wind was back to normal today, but the waves were still intense, making the area right near the shore into the most fun wave pool we’ve ever been in. We spent hours just jumping over waves. It was awesome.
Try not to hate me too much. I’m thinking about everyone back home, and hoping that you all stay safe. But I’m thrilled to pieces that I’m not there.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Hurricane Sandy, Kids, Travel, Turks & Caicos
St. Kitts Part 3: An Amazing Fort & A Beautiful Beach
Oct 1, 2012 Travel
My first day on a press junket to St. Kitts was about the food. My second day involved a fantastic Jeep tour and a sunset catamaran cruise, and then of course more food. The third day involved more beauty than I’ve ever seen in one day.
We started out traveling up into the hills, on twisty, narrow roads, and I was glad I wasn’t driving. At one point our bus driver somehow got us through this archway, which not only had about a half inch of clearance on either side of us, but was on a wicked curve.
We were headed to a place called Brimstone Hill, an old British fort, and I admit I wasn’t excited at first. I’ve been to forts, including others in the Caribbean. I used to play on the steep hills of Old Fort Niagara. Yawn. But, when on press trips like these you go where the group goes.
Brimstone Hill was no ordinary fort, though, and if you go to St. Kitts you have to make this a stop. This fortress is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and for good reason. For one thing, it’s an engineering marvel. The hand-cut stones had to be dragged up this huge hill, a task done by slaves.
From here, you walk to the top!
The views are out of this world.
But if you’re an average American expecting gates and railings and signs telling you when something is dangerous, you’re going to fall and break many things here.
Yup, you could just walk right off the edge, stupid American tourist!
There are many strange little rooms – I’m pretty sure this one wasn’t supposed to be open
I wasn’t allowed to take pictures in the rooms with the displays, but that’s where I spent most of my two hours there. The entire history of the island is told, plus model rooms showing how the British soldiers stationed at the fort would have eaten, slept, and washed their clothes. Let’s just say that the amazing views were probably the only perk for the soldiers of Brimstone Hill.
We headed south to the narrow part of the island, where you can see the Atlantic on the left and the Caribbean on the right, at a great photo opp spot called Timothy Hill.
We also had a great view behind us of the Marriott Resort, where we were staying. Many thanks to Kayt Sukel for the picture!
After a drive spent peering up at mansions in the hills, we arrived at our lunch destination, a delightful restaurant called Spice Mill.
And in front of Spice Mill was quite possibly the most beautiful beach I’ve ever been to, Cockleshell Beach.
Beds! On a beach! I was in heaven
If you go, and are comfortable driving on the “wrong” side of the road, by all means rent a car. But I was told by our guides that getting a taxi out to Cockleshell Beach was routine. And if you like clear blue water and a quiet, relaxing little slice of paradise, you must make the trip.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 7. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
St. Kitts Part 2: Exploring the Island, from Land and Sea
Sep 28, 2012 Travel
Day one on my press junket to St. Kitts involved some swimming and a very fine dinner. Day two was packed with more great food, a Jeep tour of the island, and a sunset catamaran cruise – a full, fun day in a gorgeous setting.
We met Greg of Greg’s Safaris and set off on a four hour Off The Beaten Path tour. Greg is a really interesting guy, and since he was born and raised on St. Kitts, he knew everything and everybody. His company is the only one that can take Jeep tours of the hilly, rainforest interior of the island. He also does hiking tours.
Jillian Ryan getting into our Jeep
We started out driving through the main part of town, passing by Port Zante, which has duty-free shopping and a new cruise ship terminal, and the popular public market, which is open on Saturdays – Greg said to try and get there by 8am if you can!
Public Market
Even the KFC is colorful!
We also passed the Ocean Terrace Inn, which is renowned for its Friday night West Indian buffet and steel drum band. It also belonged to Greg’s parents, until they sold it in the mid-90s.
Our first stop was an old abandoned sugar plantation. Everything was done to make these houses as cool as possible in the Caribbean heat. The ceilings were high, there were louvers around the doorways to keep the air moving, and the kitchen was in a different building.
Shadwell Great House
Every plantation had a banyan tree, because they grew more or less horizontal to the ground, and created a lot of shade.
Another plantation we visited had a gorgeous Poinciana tree (also called the Flamboyant Tree, for obvious reasons). We saw many of these pretty trees in St. Kitts, but this one was absolutely breathtaking.
Greg parked the Jeep under the Poinciana, and got together a nice snack full of different kinds of island fruits, coconut goodies, and rum while we explored.
Our next stop was an old sugar processing mill. About one hundred of them dot the landscape. These were not happy places, since like many labor-intensive industries at the time, the work was done by slaves. Greg brought stacks of photos to help us see some of the history of the sugar mills.
The last stop was St Mary’s Anglican Church in Cayon, which has a rich history as part of the abolitionist movement. The vicar of St. Mary’s in the 1770s, James Ramsey, had started out as a doctor, but after seeing the horrors of a slave ship he became an Anglican priest and an outspoken opponent of slavery. He was also the inspiration for James Newton’s famous hymn, Amazing Grace.
We clamored onto the Jeep one last time and headed for the Marriott. It was a pretty amazing afternoon.
After some time back at the hotel, we headed back to Port Zante to board a catamaran – my first time! – for a sunset cruise, with Leeward Island Charters. We took our shoes off and climbed aboard.
The people in the next boat were showing off their catches and basically goofing around for our benefit.
As we headed away from St. Kitts the clouds rolled in – perfect timing! It was a gorgeous evening.
Our leader from Diamond PR, Lisa, with Ava’s daughter and Kayt’s son
Gorgeous!
Up Next…
On Monday I’ll be posting some amazing pictures from a huge fort high atop a hill, and possibly the most beautiful beach I’ve ever been to.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 7. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
