Month: May 2018

If you haven’t been to Disney lately, you haven’t been to Disney.

I’m always amazed at the changes I see whenever I go to Disney World and I admittedly go to Disney World a lot (for both work and pleasure). It always seems like there’s something new going on there, even if it’s only been a couple of months since I last visited.

I think the catch phrase taken from the recent movie (and one of my favorites), The Greatest Showman, is true of Disney World, as well, “If you haven’t been to the circus lately, you haven’t been to the circus.”

If you haven’t been to Disney World lately, you haven’t been to Disney World!

I had the privilege a couple of weeks ago to go to an AEP at Disney World, which stands for Agent Education Program. It’s a training opportunity for a select group of Travel Agents. At this training, I had the opportunity to tour a number of resorts and get a pretty thorough update on the latest Disney happenings. I wanted to share some of those exciting “happenings” with you all.

Transportation of yesteryear…

Like Atlanta interstates, there always seems to be construction going on at Disney World. One of the biggest new projects they have going on is the SkyLiner construction. If you remember the old Skyway at Magic Kingdom from much earlier in the park’s history (see accompanied picture), the new SkyLiner is this same idea but on a much larger scale.

Old Skyway at Magic Kingdom park

The new SkyLiner will connect Epcot with Hollywood Studios, Caribbean Beach Resort, Disney’s new Riviera Resort, and Art of Animation and Pop Century Resorts. There isn’t an estimated opening date for this cool, retro transportation option yet, but you can view some of the construction for it below. Also, check out a recent post from the Disney Parks blog with more information about the SkyLiner transportation option.

Skyliner project
Skyliner map
Construction and Skyliner passthrough station.

Times they are a-changin…

Another thing that Disney seems to be constantly in the process of doing is refurbishing the hotel rooms. Some of the resorts such as The Contemporary and The Polynesian have been around for close to 50 years. (Here’s a cool website about some of the history of the construction of Disney’s Contemporary resort). As you can imagine, with so much history, some of the resorts have become a little outdated and in need of a facelift. From the updated rooms at Pop Century resort, which includes a change from 2 double beds to a queen bed and a queen size Murphy bed to a completely new Disney’ Vacation Club resort, called Disney’s Riviera Resort, to updated rooms as Disney’s Coronado Resort-“Times they are a-changin”.

Coronado resort is a really great example of the updates taking place. Disney is in the process of updating the rooms there. They are adding a brand new over-the-water restaurant, plus a 15 story tower which will add 500 new rooms to the resort.  The tower will have a roof-top dining option which will allow for panoramic views of the various fireworks shows throughout Disney property.  You can see a rendering of the new tower on the Disney Parks blog .

Below are a few before and after pictures of the updated rooms at Disney’s Coronado Springs. The changes are pretty dramatic including a completely renovated bathroom, new colors, new linens, updated entertainment center and new Keureg coffee pots in each room. They also have changed from carpeted floors to hardwood floors(this makes the rooms look a lot fresher and will help the rooms stay a lot fresher in the Florida humidity) and they have raised the bed heights to allow for under-bed storage.

Other fun facts…

In addition to the above updates, here are a few others:

  1. Re-imagined Caribbean Beach resort
  2. Yacht Club Resort room refurbishment
  3. Yacht Club Convention Center expansion
  4. Fly over road to streamline traffic at Magic Kingdom
  5. Speedway gas station outside of Magic Kingdom refurbishment
  6. New NBA experience at Disney Springs
  7. The Void at Disney Springs-Star Wars experience for adults
  8. Pixar Play Zone at Contemporary Resort-kids interactive child care center

And that doesn’t even cover the festivals, concerts, seasonal activities and openings of new rides and lands happening on a regular basis throughout the Disney World property.

The magic continues…

As you can see, things are constantly changing at Disney World. So, whether you’ve never been there or you’ve been there more times than you can count, there’s always something new to see and experience.

Walt Disney is quoted as saying, “You don’t build it for yourself. You know what the people want and you build it for them”. This mentality is readily apparent in the constant updates being made at Walt Disney World. Constantly moving forward, constantly creating new dreams and new memories to make.

Review of Disney Minnie Vans

Monorails, Buses and Boats. Oh my!

If you’ve ever been to Disney World, you know that they have a variety of transportation options for getting around property. From the three resorts that the Monorail actually runs through, to the resorts that offer boat transportation to and from the parks and Disney Springs, plus the buses that run continuously to and from pretty much every place on property, there are a lot of transportation options available. Yet, there’s still room for adding more options.

Minnie Vans, is the latest transportation options being offered on Disney World property. For this option, Disney has partnered with the company Lyft to provide a great transportation option throughout the Disney World property.

App instructions

In order access the Minnie Van service, there are a couple of options for how you can access the Minnie Van service specifically. For any of the options you will need to have the Lyft app on your phone.

  1. You can go to the front desk of your hotel to have a cast member add the Minnie Vans option to the Lyft app for you.
  2. You can use the notification that shows up in My Disney Experience that’s prompts you to add the Minnie Van option once you arrive on Disney property
  3. You can go to this website and it gives you step by step instructions for how to update the Lyft app to include the Minnie Van option before you get to Disney property (https://dvcinfo.com/minnie-van-service-now-available-dvc-resorts/)

Once you have the Minnie Van update added to the app installed your app will look like this:

You will want to select the one that looks like the red with white polka dots like Minnie Mouse, otherwise you will get a regular Lyft vehicle that comes to pick you up instead of the specific Minnie Van option.  You will then confirm your pick up location and you can put in your destination, as well. The app will give you an estimated arrival time for the Minnie Van. Be sure you have your payment method, such as PayPal, set up on the Lyft app, for easy payment at the end of your ride.

No matter where you are going on property the fee for the Minnie van service is $25 one way.

Experience the Minnie Van service

A fellow travel agent and friend of mine recently utilized the Minnie Van option to get to and from Magic Kingdom and to and from Hollywood Studios from Animal Kingdom Lodge. I have to say after the experience I’m spoiled by the experience. 😊 The Minnie Vans we took were super nice! They we nice and new Chevy Equinox SUVs. My friend and I both wanted to go out and buy a Chevy Equinox after the experience. The vehicles can seat up to 6 passengers plus the driver. There is the front seat, two middle bucket seats and a third row for 3 people which is actually quite roomy.

The vehicle comes equipped with two available car seats and a universal phone charger to charge your devices when they have gone dead after a long day at the parks or shopping at Disney Springs.

The Minnie van drivers are actually Disney cast members and are super nice and informative. We took the Minnie Van a total of 4 times and each time the driver had actually worked as a cast member in another part of the company before working as a Minnie Van driver. Each had their own flavor to add to the conversation depending on where they had worked before. Some of them gave us updates on current happenings at the Disney World resort while on our way to our destination. They were definitely well informed with any questions about Disney that we had.

Siskel and Ebert say?

Overall, I would definitely give my experience with the Minnie Van service an enthusiastic 2 thumbs up. Not only was the vehicle itself comfortable and clean, it was an enjoyable ride due to the friendly cast member drivers. It was also a cool (temperature-wise) ride, with a really nice working air conditioner-which is definitely important in the Florida heat and, of course, there was Disney music playing on the radio. All of these things helped to maintain that “Disney feeling” even on the ride to and from our resort.

The Minnie Van arrived in about 5 minutes or less in each situation and it was a quick way to get to where we were going. For example, when we went to Magic Kingdom, the Minnie Van picked us up about 5:30pm and we were getting on Splash mountain at 6:06pm. So, it was actually a really quick option, definitely quicker than the buses, in our experience. The Minnie Van drops off where all of the Disney buses drop you off. This is especially important for Magic Kingdom park. Something to note: if you take a regular Lyft vehicle to Magic Kingdom, they drop off at the ticket and transportation center, which means you still have to take the ferry or the Monorail to actually get to the entrance of Magic Kingdom park. With Minnie vans, they drop you off at the bus depot, which puts right at the entrance to the park and the Minnie Van bus stop is actually #11, which is the first bus stop in the bus depot, so it is the closest walk to get to from the park entrance.

Other Tidbits

  1. The Minnie Vans do come equipped with two optional car seats but, if you need more than two, these have to be specially requested and this can delay your pick up time.
  2. The Minnie vans can accommodate those in wheelchairs or ECVs but the Disney website says that “an additional wait time may occur” for those needing these accommodations. I can see this being especially true for those with ECVs. Although we did see a Minnie Van that was more of the van variety, which was able to load the ECV onto the vehicle.
  3. I would consider this to be a premium transportation option, as it costs $25 each way. Obviously, it’s not free like the bus, boat or monorail.
  4. The drop off location for Magic Kingdom is really close and convenient. The drop off location of Hollywood Studios was less convenient. It was all the way out at the very end of the bus depot. It was a short walk but still it was further away than the buses and the tram.
  5. It runs from 6:30am to 12:30am to anywhere on Disney property. It does not transport to off-Disney property locations (this is the same as other Disney transportation options)
  6. Because you knew the estimated arrival time of your Minnie Van, there wasn’t as much waiting around at the bus stop like there is with a bus or boat. This can especially be beneficial with tired kids (or adults 😊)

Final Thoughts

All in all, I think you have to decide whether this is a good option for you and your party. There is an added cost to it, but there is also a lot of value in the convenience and comfort of it, so it’s definitely an option that I will utilize again in the future, especially when it comes to Magic Kingdom.  If you’d like more information about the Minnie van service, you can visit the Disney World website here.

So what do you say? Is the Minnie Van service something you’d use? Why or why not? Have you used it before? What did you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

 

“You can design, and create, and build the most wonderful places in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.”-Walt Disney