3GATM

If you didn't already know, I have created my own Disney Podcast and it is called 3 Guys and the Mouse. Take a listen if you will, it's great fun and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy making it.
3GATM on Spreaker
or subscirbe on iTunes.

Infant Trip Planning Part 2: Character Meet and Greets

Cars Land Postcard

Finally I'm bringing my second in my series for infant trip planning, character meet and greets. As an adult male I will say I've never really done meet and greets but for my daughter we made it a point to do them. Now with her at 3 months I will say she didn't really respond to the non human characters. Now at 5 months, she actually responds a little more to the non human characters. I suppose it's because they are just big plush to her. She loves to try to eat Donald's bill. It's awesome. 

There are a few locations to find specific characters and I'll list them for you. 

Goofy in Main Street

Main Street 

Fab five

Mary poplins and Bert

Cruella de vil

Random princess: jasmine, Tiana

Alice and mad hatter

Fantasyland

Princess fairy tale hall: Ariel, Cinderella, aurora

Flynn and rapunzel

Merida

Elsa and Anna

Tomorrowland

Pixie hollow

Storm troopers

Darth vader

Darth maul

Thor

Captain America

Buzz

Frontierland

Long lost friends

Woody

Jessie

Adventureland

Aladdin

Genie

New Orleans Square

Tiana 

Naveen

Louis

Critter country

Pooh, eeyore, tigger

Toon Town

Donald

Mickey

Minnie

Goofy

DCA

Buena vista

Fab five

Streetmosphere

Hollywoodland

Disney junior

Mike and sulley

Frozone

Mr incredible

Elastigirl

Redwood creek

Dug and Russell

CarsLand

Mater

Red

Lightning

Dj

Bugs land 

Flick and atta (not sure how often if even they appear)

Paradise pier

Mickey

Toy story

Duffy

Condor flats

Minnie

Pooh Corner with Tigger

Now when it comes to the many places you can find certain characters you have to remember that they wear different outfits in locations. Specifically mickey, Minnie, Donald, goofy, chip and dale, Pluto wear different outfits where in DCA locations. If you want to be a completist, it's imperative to get each one. 

Another great note is to get an autograph book. You can pick them up in just about every store at Disneyland resort but you can also pick them up at stores around Disneyland for cheaper. If you're into Pinterest you can make your own; I've seen some awesome ones. My fav is the adventure book from up. 

Ellie was not a fan of Merida's overzealous voice during a nap

One of the best tips I would give you is find a location that you want to take a photo at. If you visit often or even visit occasionally this is a great keepsake from your trip. There are a few locations that are very popular. Partners, castle, Matterhorn, storytellers and the CarsLand postcard. Some other key spots are places like the White Rabbit's door and the Sword in the Stone.
One of my favorite things are the attraction vehicles. There are Mr. Toad's automobile and a Dumbo in Fantasyland and other vehicles in Mickey's Toontown.

crazy baby drivers

Another great spot to visit is the Disney Visa picture spot in DCA. It is over by the Mad T Party Mad Arcade. You have to have a Disney Visa card from Chase. You get a free 3x5 from Disney Photopass. Now the characters here vary so you have to check and they also only run it for a few hours.
Well, I hope you found this very informative and that it will help you out on your next trip out to the Disneyland resort.
As always feel free to tweet me or email me with anything you want to add or comment on at giodisney113@gmail.com.
Thanks,
-Josh (gioDisney)

the White Rabbit's door

Affordable Disneyland: character erasers

Hello and welcome to the first in a new series I am presenting, Affordable Disneyland. This idea came when a friend of mine pointed out that Disneyland can often be quite expensive and that they're not sure what would be more

Affordable options. I decided I might try to help with presenting some of the more affordable souvenirs, restaurants, and even shops around and inside Disneyland. 

Today I begin with one of my favorite quick souvenirs and deals, the cash wrap deals. I begin with these cool new Disney Mickey Mouse and friends and Disney Princess erasers. The deal is 3 for $5 and they come in different characters. They are mystery packs and you can get Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse,  Donald, Goofy, Pluto and a mystery character (though it looks like Chip and Dale). In the Disney Princess you have Cinderella, Rapunzel, Belle, Ariel, and Tiana and a mystery princess (looks like Aurora). 

you can find these in bins in the queue of the checkout at stores

As always, you can tweet me or email me with any questions or comments at giodisney113@gmail.com
-Josh (gioDisney)

Trip Planning for an Infant Part 1: Attractions!

the Giordano and Garcia clans meet up to celebrate Ellie's first trip

I recently made a couple of trips to the Disneyland Resort (DLR) to enjoy my 3 month old's first trips to my favorite destination in the world and second home, Disneyland. One thing I love to do is plan for trips. I will say that I am still open to suggestions and will alter around it, but for the most part I know what I will be doing on a trip. Now planning this trip was a whole new experience. This was completely different from any other trip I've taken. I thought I would share with you some of my experiences and hopefully help you out too. Now this post was taking up so much time and was so lengthy I have decided to split it up, so I hope you enjoy!

Some of us were not so amused by Ellie's driving skills

Attractions- I love attractions. I hate to admit it, but yeah I will tend to go commando and just ride everything. Naturally, the biggest change was the fact that I could not do this. I thought there were far less attractions that were good for all ages, however, most attractions in Disneyland are for all ages. Of course, Disney California Adventure has fewer attractions. I must warn you though, between the bathroom breaks and feedings, you will not do probably half of this list. Here are the attractions suitable for all ages:

Obligatory Partners shot and no, I am not asleep

Disneyland

Main Street

• Disneyland Railroad
• Main Street Vehicles
• Horseless Carriage

Fantasyland

• Peter Pan's Flight
• Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
• Snow White's Scary Adventure
• Pinocchio's Daring Journey
• King Arthur Carousel
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant
• Casey Jr.
• Storybook Land Canal Boats
• Mad Tea Party
• Alice In Wonderland
• "it's a small world"

Tomorrowland

• Astro Orbiter
• Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters
• Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage*
• Monorail

Adventureland

• The Enchanted Tiki Room
• Jungle Cruise
• Tarzan's Treehouse

New Orlean's Square

• Pirates of the Caribbean
• The Haunted Mansion

Critter Country

• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Frontierland

• Mark Twain Riverboat
• Sailing Ship Columbia

Mickey's Toontown

• Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin

A new favorite spot, Storytellers

Disney California Adventure

Buena Vista Street

• Red Car Trolley

Hollywoodland

• Monsters Inc. Mike and Sulley to the Rescue

a bug's land

• Flik's Flyers
• Heimlich's Chew-Chew Train
• Francis' Ladybug Boogie

Paradise Pier

• Golden Zephyr
• King Triton's Carousel
• Mickey's Fun Wheel
• Toy Story Midway Mania

My one caveat would be that Toy Story Midway Mania, though an all heights attraction, you should not do. I say this from experience. I took my daughter on there at three months and instead of enjoying the attraction, I spent it preventing her from the whiplash-esque turns. It was definitely way too intense.

Cars Land postcard sign

I would also like to take this time to tell you to use the Child Switch pass to your advantage. I had never done this before this trip but it definitely helped out a lot. The way it works is that both parents cannot ride an attraction together when they have no one to watch the baby. Instead of having to bypass the attraction, the Child Switch pass is given to the family member sitting off and the rest stand in line and ride the attraction. When the family member sitting off gets to go, Disney doesn't expect them to suffer riding the attraction by themselves. Instead they can bring 2 others with them to the FastPass line and ride the attraction. Another tip on that would be, you can use it on FastPass. This means that the general group heads on using their FastPass and the person sitting off gets the Child Switch "FastPass" to head back on with 2 others. It definitely made it possible to do such must sees as Radiator Springs Racers!

Ellie was quite excited in the mornings!

Remember though, you are not doing this for the enjoyment of attractions but for the memories that you will cherish for years to come and reminisce fondly on later.I know I will always remember how she slept through half of the "it's a small world holiday" then woke up halfway to confusement of what was happening. Or when we rode The Little Mermaid attraction and she would get excited when hearing Part of your World and Under the Sea because we sing them to her all the time. These are some of the reasons why I have been touring Disney Parks all my life and why I could not wait to bring my own daughter and make some memories of our own.

Getting in that quick nap before "small world"

Hopefully this list and tips will help you out on planning your trip with your infant and please feel free to comment or chat with me on twitter. Also expect to see more posts as this will be a 4 part series, next is Character Meet and Greets! Thanks!

Ellie and I try our hardest to pull this weight!

D23 for FREE! But WHY?

D23 announced today that they will begin a new version of D23 on June 17, to include a new free membership. What are the perks of paying for D23 is you can have it for free? Oh that's right, they also announced that the magazine will now be only for Gold Members. 

Me and D23 Head, Steven Clark

OK, then why would you take the free membership? Well, the only real perk is apparently the ability to get tickets for the D23 Expo. I had always heard that both of the Expos have been super crowded and that there were such long lines for every event and that they couldn't even allow every person in line into the events, so why on Earth are they trying to get more people at the Expo? It just doesn't make sense to me. D23 Head did mention that they may offer some of the popular Fanniversary events to the free members.

Some new things coming that sound very interesting are the Attraction Rewind where they will be delving into  extinct or, to use their terms, "retired" attractions. Ask a Disney Legend, which is promised to be like the Ask Dave column but featuring Disney Legends. Here's hoping that MiceAge allows Bob Gurr to write for this. Weird Disney to "look at weird promotions, weird events, weird characters, weird audio and more." Question, will they mention the weird Mowgli walk around character that was at Disney's Animal Kingdom this past week? I am also so excited for the Walt Files. As D23 describes it, "Walk in Walt's footsteps through rare stories, audio, video, and images."

However, they did announce some of the member only features that will be coming to the D23 site. I am excited that they will be bringing the Disney A to Z encyclopedia to the site. This is the encyclopedia with over 7,000 entries and was compiled by Disney Legend Dave Smith. And he will be updating it monthly. You can't get any better than that.

Dave Smith giving a presentation at the Walt Disney Archives

Some honorable mentions for members only is the Quotable Walt Disney book online for you, the usual discounts and their downloads page will be members only. No more free rides on wallpapers, sorry. 

So now the countdown begins for June 17th for the new site to come. Oh did you hear the rumor that Lone Ranger will be premiering at Disney California Adventure? Crazy right?

Don't go "commando" at Disney Parks

Recently my wife and I headed down to Disneyland Resort for a quick getaway and we did something we rarely do, we took it slow at the park. We are notorious for going "commando" and just running through the parks rididng as many attractions as possible. Now understand that as much as Disney fans love to hate on going "commando" at Disney Parks, when you're there, you can't help but find yourself thinking, I have to get on as many attractions as I can to make this worth the price. I can say that for us, we go so often, it often seems silly to stop and watch a show or parade or even the fireworks.
This past trip, we decided to go ahead and take it slow at the park (partially because it was a rainy day so there was no rush to ride anything) and I have to say, the experience was amazing. I felt almost like I had never been to Disneyland or Disney California Adventure (DCA) before. All of the sudden we noticed the environment and the theming of the attractions and queues instead of searching for the hidden Mickey's and trying to rush to be first in line. We saw a performance at the Golden Horseshoe and it was hilarious ("She's so ugly, she headed into the Haunted Mansion and didn't come out scared, came out with a job!").

 

At DCA, we watched for the first time the Instant Concert!...Just Add Water and it was hilarious and down right Goofy! It reminded me of watching the classic Goofy "How to" cartoons live! We stared into the gigantic Christmas tree in Buena Vista St. and noticed that there were ornaments all over it with lesser known Disney secondary characters (I could swear that Mickey's nephews, Morty and Ferdie, were on one such ornament). We also checked out kids going to sit on Santa's lap at Elias & Co. and it actually seemed like a real department store (aside from the amazing outfits, friendly elves and jolly Ol' St. Nick).

 

 

At Disneyland, we rode the railroad and actually watched the landscape instead of checking our iPhones to see what attraction had the lowest wait and we saw things like feral cats, hidden Mickeys, and even what I believe to be an Indiana Jones reference (if the dog bowl says Indiana, I'm inclined to believe it's a reference to Henry Jones Jr.'s famous monicer). We even saw the snow fall on Main Street and for at least a second, we believed that Disney had used some magic and brought us snow in a city that doesn't snow.

There is so much to see and experience at the parks that I have to jump on the bandwagon and say hey, don't rush to get on Space Mountain and Indiana Jones, take a second to take in the atmosphere, and you won't regret it, in fact, you just may notice those intricate details for the first time.