Review: Disney's Hollywood Studios Club Villain

Today on the blog we are in full review mode and taking a look back at our WDW trip in late March. On this trip we experienced a special ticketed event called Club Villain. This special event takes you up close and personal with the Disney Villains. Specifically, Cruella De Vile, The Evil Queen, Maleficent, and the Queen of Hearts. 

Your host for the evening is that ever evil Shadow Man, Dr. Facillier from the Princess and the Frog. His club manager, Kanzo keeps the party rolling all night and makes sure you are fully entertained. 

The club features a DJ spinning all the right tunes to put you in the mood and also a full bar with 4 specialty drinks themed after each queen of darkness. A gourmet buffet fit with voodoo sticky pig wings, chicken gumbo, cajun shrimp and grits, and beef tenderloin will certainly fill you up.

Shall we dive in to the review now that you are intrigued?

The party takes place inside of Sunset Showcase directly next door to Rock N Roller Coaster. You have to go through a huge gate to enter so you can easily miss it if the line for Rock N Roller Coaster is long. 

Upon entering you check in and are handed a invitation with your meet and greet time for each queen. It also lists your table number as well. Waiters are available outside for a champagne drink or for kids a small water. 

Once the party opens you are able to enter and find your table number. From here you can go get a drink at the bar, take pictures on the thrones of each queen, or belly up to the buffet and get your grub on! 

    

After everyone has entered you are then greeted by Dr. Facillier and his club manager Kanzo. They perform and welcome you to the dark side. Each queen of darkness is then introduced and makes her way to her throne. 

 

You are invited to eat, drink, be evil, and most importantly have fun! As your time approaches you can then get in line for the meet and greets with each queen. Up first for us was Maleficent and Cruella. 

 

Maleficent is my favorite queen of dark by far! I love her and we had such a good time meeting her. She spoke about making sure to watch out for needles they are very sharp and you can sleep for a long time. 

 

Cruella was very animated and loved having everyone here to see her. She said no matter what others said it was totally her party. She spoke to our princess about training her for dog napping. She said they could set up a lunch and discuss the proper ways to do so. 

 

After our first meet and greets we headed back to the bar for the signature cocktails of Ms. Maleficent and Cruella. Maleficent's drink was by far my favorite of the night. It reminded me of hawaiian punch. It was very light and delicious! I can't remember the name of it or what was in it, sorry! Cruella's drink was also quite good. It tasted like milk and was called the spotted dalmatian. 

 

Up next for meet and greets was the fabulous Queen of Hearts. She was probably our favorite character of the week. She was so funny and wonderful. She talked to us for quite a while and even left to go join the dance party for just a moment. Our little princess wanted to discuss with her the removing of heads if she should see fit. The Queen of Hearts loved this, but made sure to tell her she's only allowed to reward good behavior at Club Villain. She said when she gets older she would call her and enroll her in training. She was lovely and hilarious!! As you can judge by our photos.

The Evil Queen was probably the most unfriendly of all but she is supposed to be right? We told her we were the fairest of them all and she said maybe in our mirrors at home but definitely not to her mirror. We spent the least time with her as she just asked us for a photo and said off you go. 

   

We then took to the desert tables. There were 2 of them on either side of the room. You had to visit each table to find out what the specialty desert was. We enjoyed the chocolate mouse and puppy tart from Cruella, Maleficent was a chocolate with green icing cupcake, as well as this delicious green pudding that sparkled! The Queen of Hearts featured a heart red macaroon, and of course red velvet cupcakes. 

We finished up the party by dancing to some crazy good tunes!! And we spent some more time with Maleficent just because we could! All in all the party took about 2 hours from start to finish. 

We enjoyed our experience very much and felt like it was worth the splurge on this trip. It was nice to be indoors and be waited on as well as get away from the hustle and bustle of the parks. We never once felt rushed and were able to really relax and have fun at the party. The character experiences were amazing as well. They do not rush you and we never had to wait in line which was another great thing. The food was delicious as well as the drinks. It was great to have an unlimited, relaxing, and fun experience with the whole family. We would definitely recommend this special ticketed event to anyone who loves a good party but especially those that love the villains. 

Club Villain is currently available through May right now and may be extended. The price tag is $129 per person, no discount for children. Club Villain is recommended for ages 9 and up as it can be a bit scary for smaller children. All food, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages are included. There are photographers on site as well. 

Day 4 of WDW Trip: Reviewing Magic Kingdom

Day 4 of our WDW trip brought us to the magical park of Magic Kingdom where all things Mickey and Princess prevail. Magic Kingdom was open from 8am to 2am on the Wednesday we were there so we knew we were going to hit the park and hit it hard. 

We planned on using up all 3 of our fastpasses pretty quickly and then going back and getting more. I will not bore you with my over planning but I had a very detailed itinerary for us to follow that day and I'm happy to say we got most of it checked off and even went off the list for a few extra rides. 

I will also tell you that the most we got done was between the hours of 11pm to 1am. After 11:45pm unless you were a resort guset you could not ride any of the rides. This dramatically reduced all of the wait times in the evening as everyone left. Plus it was really late at night so you didn't have toddlers running around either. 

We never saw a wait time exceed 30 minutes during this time frame. It was awesome!! So for those of you with older children I highly recommend taking advantage of the PM extra magic hours when they are available. 

We had Fastpasses on this day for:

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Space Mountain

We loved Seven Dwarfs Mine Train! It's a step up from the Barnstormer for those of you with little ones but it is fun! It's fast and doesn't drop you but does give the little ones just enough adrenaline of a real roller coaster. My 9 year old loved it and wanted to do it again, we all did, but with a 2 hour wait we said goodbye to SDMT. 

We did get to meet Tiana, Tinkerbell, Gaston, and the Beast on this day and they were all fabulous. Our favorite was Gaston, he never broke character and was just the right amount of rude and charming. :) Tiana would have to be our second favorite she talked to us about gumbo and crawfish early in the morning and it made us hungry for some Louisiana food all day!!

And if you can't tell by the bottom two photos, my little princess took a trip to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in Cinderella's Castle. I'll do a whole post dedicated to that next week. 

We also had dinner at Be Our Guest which was wonderful! The castle is very magical and makes you feel right like you are in the movie. I decided over the weekend that because of all the good meals we ate I have to do a series on the food. It was just so good and each restaurant deserves it's own post. 

After dinner we rode Pirates of the Caribbean which is one of my all time favorite attractions as well as Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain (over and over again), and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. 

Isn't my husband just so funny with his faces on rides? Gotta love him!! 

So what was the highlight of our day this day you ask? It had to be riding all the mountains: Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Of course we also loved meeting Gaston, riding SDMT, and we did ride the Haunted Mansion more than a few times for me and my love of the Haunted Mansion. :)

We took full advantage of utilizing the Fastpass kiosk when we spent our 3 fastpasses and made subsequent selections. I think all in all we had 6 fastpasses for the day. It was a long day and to say we were tired on the bus back to the resort would be a complete understatement. However we had a blast and loved being able to spend so much time together as a family enjoying each other and having a great time making memories!!

Tomorrow starts the review of our double days. We spent 2 days in each of the parks except Epcot. Those days will be reviewed through Wednesday and then we will start a new series. 

I hope you've enjoyed seeing our trip in review. Comment below to let us know your favorite thing about Magic Kingdom. 

Day 3 of WDW Trip: Reviewing Hollywood Studios

Day 3 took us over to Hollywood Studios! Now we knew going in that a ton of the attractions and restaurants are currently shut down (Backlot Tour, Mike and Sully meet and greet, Streets of America, Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground.). I was surprised to see how much of the park was hidden behind walls. It is a pretty significant amount of the park at this point just FYI. 

As we all know, Hollywood Studios is undergoing so major changes in that they are expanding the park to include a new Star Wars land and Toy Story land. Within that they are also adding a third track to Toy Story Midway Mania to cut down on wait times which pretty regularly exceed 2 hours. 

Fret not though, all of the projected completion dates for these new lands will be December 2018 with Toy Story land opening possibly sooner. Take a look at the projected look of the new lands. 

Alright so with that out of the way let's talk about our day at Hollywood Studios. We set off immediately for the Rock N Roller Coaster only to be met with a 60 minute wait at park opening. We should have stood in line because as they day went on it did not get better but we didn't. We set off to one of my favorite attractions The Great Movie Ride. I could do this one over and over again, I just love it. We did not make it to the Tower of Terror or Rock N Roller Coaster on our first Hollywood Studios day as they exceeded hour wait times all day long. I don't believe I ever saw either below 70 minutes. 

Some of our favorite attractions and shows of the day were: 

Toy Story Midway Mania (of course!!)

Star Tours

The Great Movie Ride

Frozen Sing A Long

Fantasmic

We also met the ever dark Kylo Ren and he scared my little Princess pretty good, even following her out the door when she said he was scary. :) We met the lovable Chewbacca too to make up for all the scary. 

Now I have to backtrack a bit and tell you about the amazing lunch we had. I swear, I'm going to do a whole week of posts just to the delicious food we ate on vacation. Maybe that will be next weeks adventure. 

We also watched the Voyage of the Little Mermaid and Indiana Jones stunt show spectacular. As well as watched my little princess' favorite Princess Belle in The Beauty and Beast show. 

We took advantage of the Fantasmic dining package and had lunch at Mama Melrose's Italian Restaurante. 

So the way the Fantasmic Dining Package works is you eat at semi off peak hours. Our lunch reservations was for 11:30am. After you get finished with your meal you are given vouchers for the first seating of Fantasmic. This way you aren't stuck waiting in line for 90 minutes like the others who did not fastpass or use the dining package. 

I have to tell you I wouldn't have it any other way. We had a delicious meal and even had appetizers and desert included with the package. We received the vouchers and had amazing seats for the show that night. It was truly a great experience all the way around. 

The other experience we did on Hollywood Studios day was go to Club Villain. However, I am dedicating a full post to this one as well so I will not delve into details here other than to say it was totally worth it and awesome. Especially if you are a big lover of villains which the Traveling Through Disney family certainly is. 

We loved watching the Fantasmic show it was fully entertaining and a great water, light, and fire show. While we were waiting on the bus we watched the Star Wars Spectacular Firework Show. It was really cool and beautifully themed to Star Wars soundtracks of the past and present.

So there you have it. A glimpse at our full and wonderful day at Hollywood Studios. Now tell us below in the comments what is your favorite thing to do at Hollywood Studios? We can't wait to hear from you!!

BREAKING: Disney Dining Plan Price Increases

Breaking news out of Disney this morning....new Disney Dining Plan prices have been made available and the price increase will be put into effect as early as today March 9, 2016. 

The good news is there is no change in service inclusions. It looks as though all of the services have stayed in tact. This means if you are on the dining plan you will still currently get the same credit allotments and any extras you may have received on the deluxe plans (i.e. appetizers, deserts, etc.).

The bad news is the dining plan increase bumps up the total cost to about 3% across the board. If you recall the 2016 Disney Dining plan was: 

However, the new Disney Dining Plan is bumping up prices by over $2 each night. Check out the new rates below:

What do you think about this new increase in prices? The change comes after Disney released new ticket prices just 2 weeks ago. Will this change your mind when purchasing a Disney dining plan now or no?

NEW: The Diamond Horseshoe Restaurant

In just a few short days Disney will debit a new restaurant inside Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Orlando. The Diamond Horseshoe has been around for a very long time but it closed back in August 2015 for a lengthy refurbishment.

In the midst of the refurbishment Disney wanted to reinvent this timeless classic. The new menu will debut with the restaurants re-opening on March 13th. The new menu will feature an all you can eat meal:

Your show-stopping, all-you-care-to-enjoy meal opens with a Frontier Salad followed by a Saloon Feast featuring your choice of BBQ Pulled Turkey, Spit-Roasted Ham or Stewed Beef with all the fixin’s. Then, enjoy a Campfire Brownie or Apple Tart finale. And it’s all served up with your choice of beverages.

It is rumored that with the new re-opening of The Diamond Horseshoe Disney is also entertaining the idea of offering some alcoholic beverages on the menu. I believe they will wait and see how the restaurants fairs first. 

Currently the only restaurant that serves alcoholic beverages is Be Our Guest and only for dinner. 

Online reservations will open up soon for lunch and dinner. This is a casual dining table service meal. The prices are listed as $15 to $30 per adult. 

What do you think of this new menu and re-opening of The Diamond Horseshoe? Will you go and check out the new items?

BREAKING: Rivers of Light Dining Packages Confirmed

With the new show Rivers of Light at Animal Kingdom debuting this Spring there have been many a rumor swirling around that a dining package will be offered for this new event. 

Much like the dining package that is currently offered for Fantasmic, guests can enjoy a lunch or dinner at one of the participating restaurants and receive a voucher for priority seating at Rivers of Light. 

Earlier this morning the packages were leaked on Disney's site but you were not able to make reservations. Now when you go to this site Disney URL you are greeted with a message stating the page is unavailable. 

No other information is currently available but stay tuned here for the most up to date info as it develops. Look for Disney to make a big announcement regarding the dining package this week.