Monsters are coming to the Disney parks.

On Leap Day 2012 Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom were open for 24 hours. Everyone wondered if this wild and crazy event would ever happen again. Would we have to wait another four years? I am happy to say that the wait is over. With Monster University, the new Pixar movie starring the heroes from Monster’s Inc., coming out this summer Disney is celebrating with a Monstrous Summer event. To start this promotion with a bang three of the parks will be open 24 hours once again.

Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, and the Magic Kingdom will all be open from 6 a.m. on May 24 to 6 a.m. on May 25. For complete information click here. This event was wildly popular when it happened in February. I expect it to be even more popular since this the start of Memorial Day weekend. Below are some ideas on how to have a good time and not go crazy or lose your cool among the crowds.

5 ways to enjoy 24 hours in the parks.

1) Arrive early. One of the biggest problems is going to be parking. Avoid that headache by arriving very early, or staying at a resort the night before. You won’t be in a good mood if you have to fight to find a parking space.

2) Pace yourself. You have 24 hours to enjoy everything. There will be lines and lots of crowds. Don’t feel that you need to see everything in the first few hours. Use Fastpass. Eat often and remember that you will be walking for miles. It should be a stroll, not a race.

3) Take a break. Since the parks will be open for 24 hours the special times will be early in the morning and late at night. That is when you will be experiencing the park at a time you never have before. There is nothing special about 2 p.m. If you are staying at a Disney resort than take a break in the afternoon and come back once it is dark. You’ll have more fun if you are rested.

4) Plan something special. You have so much more time to see everything that this is the perfect day to do something special. Make reservations for a fancy restaurant. Get in place early for the shows. Stand in line for that special character meet and greet. Many one-of-a-kind events will be happening to celebrate Monsters University. Take the time to wait and you will enjoy unique memories.

5) Ride outdoor attractions at night. Big Thunder Mountain is always fun but it is a very different ride at night. You can ride dark rides like Pirates of the Caribbean any time but make sure to ride the outdoor attractions when they may be at their best. It is a way to make one more great memory.

24 hours at a Disney park can be a dream come true or your worst nightmare. One way to keep it from being a nightmare is to keep your group fed. People quickly turn from happy to grumpy when they are hungry and by the time you realize the problem it may be too late. So enjoy a Dole Whip or a churro and keep everyone smiling. Happiness squared.

Goofy Tip: How do you decide which attraction to go on next? Why not make it a game? With a Magic Kingdom Bingo Card you can try to fill in rows or columns. Why not make up teams and see who can fill the card first? This card is so versatile that you can use it any way you want as long as you have fun.

Image from www.spoonful.com

A mother loves anything she gets from her children or grandchildren because she is a mother, so why not have some fun when picking out her gift. A homemade frame, a lovely dessert, or a photo card are all great ways to say “I love you.” Add a dash of Disney whimsy and a nice gift becomes a present sure to make your mom smile.

There are so many fun Mother’s Day ideas from spoonful.com that they put out two articles. If you are looking for cards, crafts and other fun printables click here. I gave my mom a Sleeping Beauty card that colored myself (I love to color). She loved it and showed everyone the unique card she received.

If you are looking for a fun recipe or craft idea then click here for some tasty gifts. I love the Mommyland coupon book, frames that hold a special photo, and the strawberry rosebuds. Why not give your mom all three.

The nice part about these ideas is that a lot of them can be used for a birthday or just because. I’m sure Mom would appreciate a special gift any time of the year. Happiness squared.

Goofy Tip: You are going to be at Walt Disney World with your Mom on Mother’s Day and you want to do something magical for her then contact Disney Floral and Gifts. They have several Mother’s Day packages guaranteed to make your mom feel like a queen for a day. Check out the Disney Parks Blog for examples.

Image from Disney Parks on Facebook

Star Wars and Disney goes together like chicken and waffles. They are each one of a kind, but I rarely think of one without thinking of the other. For Star Wars and Disney this is because Star Tours has been one of my favorite rides since I was a teenager. So I am never surprised to hear about special Star Wars events happening at the Disney parks. However, this newest one has me as excited as a trip to the Endor moon.

This Saturday is May 4 and Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be hosting “May the Fourth Be With You”, a special Star Wars themed event. On this day only adults can fulfill their dream and join their children in the Jedi Training Academy. I bet a lot of dads will be dragging their children through the park yelling, “Go faster, I want to sign up before it fills up!” I love watching the Jedi Training Academy shows and I’m sure it will be even funnier with the parents trying to battle Darth Vader, the nemesis of their childhood.

If you like to ride Star Tours (me! me!) then you don’t want to miss it during May the Fourth Be With You. On Saturday Star Wars characters will be riding along with you. You may be sitting next to Chewbacca, or Boba Fett. Better fasten your seat belts.

If you miss the characters at Star Tours you can still catch them throughout the park. They will be around for meet and greets which I think is amazing. I would love to have my picture taken with any of the Star Wars characters.

For a full list of everything happening on Saturday check out the blog post at touringplans.com.

This Limited Time Magic Event will be galactic fun, with everything from cool merchandise to evening Star Wars-themed fireworks. As always I wish I lived closer to the parks. Here is my advice for those who are going. Expect crowds. Arrive early. Don’t plan to ride every ride. Instead, slow down and enjoy the special events and may the fourth be with you. Happiness Squared.

Goofy Tip: Disneyland is also celebrating “May the Fourth Be With You,” but on a much smaller scale. I have noticed that many of this year’s special events are happening on both coasts. So if you hear about an event check with your nearest park or touringplans.com to see if anything is happening at near you.

Now I am not saying you should be on a diet while visiting the Disney parks. I certainly don’t think about calories while on vacation. However, I do hate that super-full feeling, and being queasy can really disrupt your trip, so I don’t recommend eating everything that is not nailed down.

But how can you enjoy a humongous, tasty, fanciful cupcake and still have room for all the other delicious things you want to enjoy? Having been in this dilemma more times than I can count I can help you out. That way you can have your cupcake and eat it too.

5 ways to enjoy a Disney cupcake guilt-free:

1) Share with a friend. This is the most fun way and it means you can try out lots of different treats. One Disney cupcake can easily be shared by four friends. If you bought two different ones you would have a lovely variety that everyone will enjoy.

2) Substitute it for a meal. Instead of grabbing a burger and fries head to one the the lovely bakeries at the parks and enjoy a cupcake. This may seem like an indulgence, but one time won’t hurt. You can eat lots of fruit and vegetables when you get home.

3) Take it home. I did not make up this idea. It is often mentioned by other Disney blogs during a discussion of the Disney dining plan. Apparently it is common to have snack points left over. They recommend you buy snacks to enjoy at home. Cupcakes are great because they are portable and hold up to some jostling. However, if this is your plan I suggest bringing some Tupperware from home. The cardboard boxes provided by Disney don’t protect a cupcake longer than a few hours.

4) Take a picture of it. Perhaps you really can’t eat anything else but you want to remember how wonderful that cupcake looked. Well, a picture may be worth a thousand words but it is also zero calories. I take pictures of a lot of the desserts in the Disney parks, whether I am eating them or not. They are works of art.

5) Forget it, just eat it. Okay, truth time. This is what I do most of the time, and while it is tasty, I often wish I had picked options 1 through 4. If you are going to eat the entire cupcake no matter what, than I suggest you dump the guilt off the edge of the Tower of Terror and enjoy every bite.

There are a ton of great food options at the Disney parks. The cupcakes are amazing, but I am often tempted by everything from breakfast pastries to awesome Mickey Mouse cookies. Whatever treat you choose these ideas can help you get the maximum guilt-free enjoyment out of your treat. Happiness squared.

Goofy Tip: It is hard to list all the cupcakes that are available because a lot of them are only around for a limited time. However, if you or your kids want a fun cupcake that is always available than head over to Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and order a Spaghetti and Meatball cupcake. This fun treat may look like pasta but it tastes awesome. Be sure to take a picture because it will be gone in a flash.

Image from Disney Insider

Spring is here and Easter is on its way. All I can think about are bunnies and eggs. This week I found two great Disney articles about bunnies (okay, actually hares) and eggs and I would like to share them with you.

Touringplans.com shows you where the eggs were hidden during the Limited Time Magic Easter egg hunt. I wish I could have visited the parks last week. I would love to have played this game.

Disney Insider (an e-newletter that you can sign up for here) had a great article on why the March Hare in Alice in Wonderland is mad. I love both Disney Alice movies (although for very different reasons) and found this article wildly entertaining.

If you enjoyed these stories, why not share them with your friends? Spring may be the time for bunnies and eggs, but any time is the right time to share something fun. Happiness squared.

Goofy Trivia: My favorite March Hare factoid is that in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland the March Hare has a name listed in the credits although not mentioned in the movie. And what is his name? Thackery Earwicket the March Hare! That is an awesome name. I’d love to give him his own animated show just so I could say his name over and over. Thackery Earwicket!

For great tips that you can take with you on your tablet or smart phone download the Kindle app and buy a copy of Goofy Tips for a Happy Disney Vacation. For 99 cents you’ll have hundreds of great ideas for visiting the Disney Parks only an app away.

Image from www.spoonful.com

Easter is March 31 this year so I have St. Patrick’s Day and Easter decorations up at the same time. My green decorations are coming down so I am looking for more fun Easter decorations. As always spoonful.com comes to the rescue with their Disney Easter printables.

If you like to decorate eggs than you need to check out these ideas. Some of them are quite elaborate like the Buzz Lightyear egg. I have no talent with decorating Easter eggs so I like the Disney Easter egg stands.

Mickey Mouse is festive year round, but Easter still makes me think of rabbits so my favorite crafts have Thumper on them. Thumper is the cute bunny from Bambi. (“I’m thumpin’. That’s why they call me Thumper.”) I’d love to fill the Thumper basket with plastic eggs filled with pastel m&m’s.

With 48 craft ideas there is something for everyone. My favorite thing to do is invite people over and decorate eggs. By using these ideas you’ll have the best looking eggs on Easter morning. Happiness squared.

Goofy Craft: Would you like to have an Easter party? Spoonful.com has everything you need from invitations and crafts to games and food. Click here to see all the fun ideas. These ideas would also work great for anyone having a birthday party near Easter.

For great tips that you can take with you on your tablet or smart phone download the Kindle app and buy a copy of Goofy Tips for a Happy Disney Vacation. For 99 cents you’ll have hundreds of great ideas for visiting the Disney Parks only an app away.

Maybe I could collect plush princesses… or not.

Everyone I know has a collection of some type, and if you are like me you have several. Some of my favorite collections are my Winnie the Pooh pewter figures, my crystal Disney bells, and my Sleeping Beauty ornaments. What I like best about these collections is that they don’t take over my house. Each one is manageable and therefore more enjoyable. But I have some collections, like my rocks, that are harder to maintain. If your collection is causing stress in your life you might think the only thing to do is get rid of it entirely. But there are ways to keep a collection under control and therefore more enjoyable. And if you aren’t enjoying your collection why are you collecting it?

5 ways to keep a collection from taking over your house:

1) Location. One way to limit your collection is to not add to it every time you can. I collect lucky cats, which are really easy to collect because they are sold at most tourist places. However, I only buy a lucky cat when I am in Chinatown, at the China Pavilion at Walt Disney World, or in China (which I am going to go to someday.) I know where I bought each piece and they hold the memories of that visit. Plus, instead of a hundred lucky cats, I only have 10.

2) Type. My brother collected die-cast cars as a child. He didn’t have very many, but his collection could have been huge because there are so many cars available. One way to limit a collection like this is to only collect a certain type of the item. My brother could have collected only cars from the 1960s or just Fords. By limiting a collection by type the collection becomes more interesting as well as more manageable.

3) No gifts. My mother used to collect rabbits. Everyone gave her rabbit items as gifts and her collection multiplied, well, like rabbits. Now she collects angels. She told everyone that she did not want angels as gifts. She buys one angel a year when she goes on vacation and she decides what is in her collection. Because she is the only one who adds to her collection it is very small and very special to her.

4) Display space. My tea cups and saucers are easy to collect and could even be considered useful. However, I limit my collection to one display case that my father made for me. Since it is full, I consider the collection complete, but if I found a tea cup I couldn’t resist I would have to make space for it by removing another one. By giving a collection a certain area you are able to maintain the collection and enjoy it more because it looks like a collection. Your house should not be considered a defined space.

5) Size. I collect pressed pennies. Fifty or so fit into a booklet. I could have hundreds of pressed pennies and my collection wouldn’t take up much room. I used to collect nutcrackers. If I had kept hundreds of nutcrackers I would have needed a bigger house. When you are starting a collection consider collecting something small. If you have a choice in size, like with Vinylmation figurines, consider collecting the 3 inch dolls and not the 9 inch ones. The enjoyment of the collection is not based on the size of the object, but on the value you place on the collection.

So have fun collecting, just make sure your collection is more of a joy than a stress. If you really need to immerse yourself in everything Disney has to sell, consider taking a trip to a Disney park and window shopping. It’s there for your enjoyment and you don’t have to dust it. Happiness squared.

Goofy Tip: If you have no space for a collection, or if you really want to declutter, consider collecting memories instead of things. You can take a picture or write in a journal, but your memories can be just as enjoyable as an item you can buy and you can take them with you anywhere.

When it comes to visiting the Disney parks there are two types of people (I am excluding locals who visit dozens of times a year). There are those who plan months in advance and those who decide to visit and just go. I admit I am in the first camp; not only do I plan months in advance but I love researching every part of the trip. However, I’d love for someone to invite me to visit a Disney park next week. Even though I would have no time to plan I would gladly go.

If you have an impromptu trip to a Disney park coming up in the next few days I still suggest you do a little planning. If you have a few days I would buy a guide book (you can find a great selection on my home page) and explore a couple of the websites listed below. If you only have a few hours I would skip the book and find the answer to three questions.

3 things to find out before you visit a Disney park:

1) Park hours/parade and fireworks times. If you are only visiting a park for one day I suggest showing up an hour before the park opens and planning to stay until the end. In order to do this you need to know the park hours. It is also helpful to know what parades and fireworks are happening. Schedules change all the time so for the most up-to-date information go to the official website for Disneyland or Walt Disney World. Just click on the day you are going and the park you are visiting and you’ll learn a lot.

2) How crowded the park is going to be. If you are going in the summer the parks will probably be more crowded than if you go in the winter, but there are exceptions. If you know what expect crowd-wise than you’ll be a lot less stressed. touringplans.com provides crowd calendars and other great tips  They have a daily blog you can sign up for so you’ll always be up-to-date whenever you visit.

3) What attractions are closed. This might be the most important piece of information you’ll need. Nothing is more annoying than walking across the park only to find out that the ride you really wanted to go on is closed. At the websites listed on #1 (where you can learn the hours that the parks are open) you can also learn what attractions are closed. Just scroll to the bottom of the date that you clicked on.

With this information you’ll go to the parks feeling prepared and stress-free. I hope you have a great trip. I’ll be home planning out my next visit to the parks. Maybe I should drop my spreadsheet and just go. Happiness squared.

Goofy Tip: If you didn’t do any of the above suggestions and you just show up at the parks you can still learn something before you go in. Most of the parks have signs near the front that tell you what rides are closed and when events are happening. You can also visit Guest Relations for the most up-do-date information (and a cool button).

For great tips that you can take with you on your tablet or smart phone download the Kindle app and buy a copy of Goofy Tips for a Happy Disney Vacation. For 99 cents you’ll have hundreds of great ideas for visiting the Disney Parks only an app away.

Image from Disney Parks Blog

I’ve been collecting lots of fun ideas for anyone planning a visit to the Disney parks around Valentine’s Day. These ideas are romantic, extravagant, and would be awesome to give. While these surprises are only available in the parks any of them can be replicated at your own home. Why settle for just a box of chocolates? Go overboard this Valentine’s Day with the help of these Disney delights.

5 romantic ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day at the Disney Parks (or at home):

Image from Disney Parks Blog

1) A Valentine’s Gift From Disney Floral & Gifts. If you are staying at a resort in Walt Disney World you can have Disney Floral & Gifts deliver a romantic gift arrangement to your room. Click here to see some pictures of what is offered and get ideas for your own gift giving.

2) A Special Valentine for Mickey and Minnie from Disney Floral & Gifts. If the gift choices above are romantic and extravagant than this gift idea for kids is just fun. I like that there is an activity for the child (in this case everything is provided so the child can make a Valentine’s Day card to give to Mickey or Minnie.) Any craft project could be included in a child’s Valentine gift.

3) A Romantic dinner for two. There are special candlelight dinner packages at high-end restaurants in both Walt Disney World and the Disneyland Resort. Going out to dinner on Valentine’s Day is pretty typical, but going to an amazing restaurant that you may not normally go to and being treated like royalty makes this idea special. Click here to see the list of participating restaurants and prices (honestly though, if you have to ask you don’t want to know.)

Image from Disney Parks Blog

4) Meet your favorite Disney couple. Why celebrate Valentine’s Day alone? Between February 11 – 17 Limited Time Magic is turning the parks into a heart-decorated Valentine’s Day card and providing lots of opportunities to meet your favorite Disney couple. From Mickey and Minnie to various princesses and their true loves there are lots of characters to choose from. There will also be special food and souvenirs to buy.  Walt Disney World and the Disneyland Resort are each doing special True Love Week events. If you are at home you might meet up with friends and have a couples’ lunch.

5) Renew your vows. This event is full, but imagine renewing your vows at Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom on Valentine’s Day. Can anything be more romantic? If you want to go whole hog you can do this at home. Even if it isn’t a formal ceremony it is a nice gesture to reaffirm your love for your partner.

I hope you have the chance to visit the Disney parks for Valentine’s Day now that you know what romantic fun is waiting for you. If you can’t visit Mickey and Minnie than these ideas can be incorporated into your own celebration. Happiness squared.

Image from Disney Parks Blog

Goofy craft: Spoonful.com has a lot of Valentine’s Day crafts, but I think this one is the sweetest. It would be a wonderful gift from any child and would be just as romantic from one Disney loved one to another. Click here to download the template. Print it out on card stock, cut the frame out, assemble, and give a gift anyone would love to display.

Image from www.disneytimesweeps.com

One of the many promotions that Disney is doing through Limited Time Magic is worth mentioning again. They are giving away a trip to a Disney park every day in January. Everyone can register once a day to be eligible for the drawing. I’ve been signing up every morning. It takes me about 1 minute. I haven’t won yet so I thought I would encourage all of you to register. It would be awesome if one of my readers won a trip.

Go to this website to see all the different trip packages that are available. If you win a trip you can change your mind about which trip you want to experience so pick a different one every day if you want. There are trips designed for families with little kids and families with teenagers. There is even a romantic trip for couples. I keep picking the Amazing Fun option because it includes the Wild Africa Trek tour that I really want to experience.

There is still a week left in January. Someone is going to win a trip to a Disney park every day. It could be you. Be sure to leave a comment in you win. Happiness squared.

Goofy Website: You will have a hard time planning a trip around the Limited Time Magic promotions because they are revealing them very close to the date they are happening. But if you want know what to expect in the next month or so you can check out the Limited Time Magic calendar. I like to be surprised when I visit the parks and I can’t wait to learn to see what magic is planned next.