Mama Monday : New Year's Eve at Walt Disney World!

Hi Mamas! Do you like going out for a nice dinner for New Year's Eve? If so, there's no better place than Walt Disney World to experience that! Most of the time you will need to blindly book a restaurant before they have released the exact menu offerings for the special dinner.

So far only Monsieur Paul has released their menu options for New Year's Eve 2013. And they have reservations available. They will have a three course lunch from 12-6:30 PM. Lunch is $75 per person. Then there will be two seatings for New Year's Eve dinner, 9 and 9:30 PM. Dinner is $195 per person. The three course lunch includes the following: Choice of Appetizer ( escargot ravioli, blue cheese salad, mussel soup) Choice of Entree (chicken stuffed with mushroom duxelle, main lobster, and beef short ribs) Dessert is just listed as a New Year's Eve Dessert. The dinner menu includes the following: champagne of course, Appetizers (beef broth oxtail and lobster salad) Fish Course (scallops and halibut) Meat Course (roasted chicken breast and grilled beef tenderloin) and of course the dessert as well.

Jiko's

Other restaurants that are available that I would expect something special for New Year's Eve are : Jiko's at Animal Kingdom Lodge, Hollywood Brown Derby at Hollywood Studios, Mama Melrose at Hollywood Studios, The Grand Dining Room Wolfgang Puck at Downtown Disney, and the Crossroads at the House of Blues at Downtown Disney.

1900 Park Fare

Another twist on New Year's Eve dinner that is fun for the whole family is opting for a character meal to celebrate instead of a nicer dinner. 1900 Park Fare-Cinderella's Happily Ever After dinner and Mickey's Backyard BBQ are both available. Both are fun experiences even without the holiday environment.  There's also the dinner show at Hoop Dee Doo. The food will likely be the same but I would expect a few surprises for the holiday.

No matter where you choose to dine, it will be special at Walt Disney World. And don't forget to catch the extra special fireworks shows!

Mama Monday : Candlelight Processional

Hello Mamas! Today we are going to discuss the Candlelight Processional. It is one of my very favorite holiday events at Walt Disney World. It runs from November 29th through December 30th for 2013. Each night a celebrity narrator reads the Bible story of the birth of Christ. Each night has amazing choirs that perform as well with traditional Christmas songs. It is one of the most beautiful performances you will ever see.

This year's narrators are (courtesy of the Disney site)

• Gary Sinise
  November 29 to December 1, 2013
• Neil Patrick Harris
  December 2 to December 3, 2013
• Ashley Judd - NEW! 
  December 4 to December 5
• Whoopi Goldberg 
  December 6 to December 7, 2013
• Sigourney Weaver - NEW!
  December 8 to December 10, 2013
• Dennis Haysbert - NEW!
  December 11 to December 13, 2013
• James Denton 
  December 14 to December 16, 2013
• Edward James Olmos
  December 17 to December 19, 2013
• Trace Adkins
  December 20 to December 22, 2013
• Steven Curtis Chapman
  December 23 to December 25, 2013
• Blair Underwood 
  December 26 to December 28, 2013
• Amy Grant 
  December 29 to December 30, 2013

Each night there are three performances. People will line up for hours to get into the show which is held in Epcot at the America Gardens Theatre. There is another way to guarantee seating to the performance-the Candlelight Processional Dinner Package. I highly recommend doing this. If you are on the dining plan, it takes two table service credits and is so worth it! The show times are 5, 6:45, and 8:15 PM. If you are doing the earlier show you actually have lunch as part of the package instead of dinner. The participating restaurants this year are: Biergarten, Chefs de France, Coral Reef, The Garden Grill, La Hacienda de San Angel, Nine Dragons, Restaurant Marrakesh, Rose & Crown Pub Dining Room, San Angel Inn, Teppan Edo, Tokyo Dining, Tutto Italia, and Via Napoli. Some of these will already be sold out for select dates but there are still seats available for a lot of these.

Your Candlelight Dinner Package will include lunch or dinner at one of these restaurants, either a three course meal or a buffet depending upon the restaurant, VIP seating for the Candlelight Processional, and special viewing locations for Illuminations. Keep in mind while the seating is VIP seating, it is not a reserved seat. You are guaranteed a seat and the location is good but you will choose a seat when you arrive. I consider the Candlelight Dinner package the way to go! It takes the stress out of the evening. You have to eat anyhow and I definitely think it is worth two table service credits to be guaranteed a seat at the show as well as special viewing locations for Illuminations.

This is a must do for all ages, though if you have little ones you might want to consider doing lunch and then earlier show instead of the dinner options. It is also a little less expensive to go that route too.

Mama Monday : Thanksgiving Day travel

Hi Mamas,  I know it is still a while before we get to Thanksgiving at Disney but I am going to tell you about the benefits of traveling ON the actual day of Thanksgiving.

1) The obvious-no stress of the holiday at your house! I love hosting events and holidays at our house but they are stressful no matter how organized or how simple you make it. Toss that stress away and tell your family you are going to Disney instead!

2) The airports are EMPTY. Totally empty. We've flown on Thanksgiving day and I was truly shocked with how empty everything was. We allowed extra time thinking there would be last minute travelers. We twiddled our thumbs waiting on our departure. The security lines were the shortest I have ever experienced. There was plenty of room to spread out on the plane too.

3) It is cheaper to fly on Thanksgiving than the day before or after-a lot cheaper. For this Thanksgiving, direct flights are coming in 43% cheaper out of our city to Orlando than the day before or after. That should make the Scrooge in your family very happy!

4) While the parks are busy, the resorts are a lot of fun to explore on Thanksgiving day. The restaurants usually offer special Thanksgiving meals too. We had a really nice meal at Citrico's when we traveled on Thanksgiving Day. It was perfect to leave the cooking and cleaning to someone else.

There are a few things to consider though heading to Disney on Thanksgiving. If Disney releases a discount, Thanksgiving is always excluded. I recommend you do a room only reservation for the nights that are excluded. This year, the discount resumes on November 30th, so Thursday and Friday would be room only. As mentioned the crowds are higher on Thanksgiving Day. We have found that by Saturday night it lightens and by Sunday it is perfect!  The only other tidbit I have for flying on Thanksgiving to make sure you have a reservation for wherever you park your car at the airport. Often times those places will get booked for drop ins on holiday weekends.

 Leave the turkey cooking to Mickey and enjoy a break.

Mama Monday : Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Today I am interviewing a special guest to  tell you all about his favorite ride! My three almost four year old, Mason, loves Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. He was finally tall enough(40 inches) to ride this in January. I asked him a few questions to help share with you what is so great about this attraction.

Mason's favorite picture of the BTMR

Waiting for the very last car

What were you thinking while you waited to ride this for the first time?  M: " I wanted to hurry up and get on the ride!"

What was the ride like? M:  "It was like a choo choo! It went fast. "

Were you scared? M: "NOOO! I loved it! I wanted to ride again and again!" (and he did ride it again and again! )

What did you say when you got off the ride? M: "I love you roller coaster!"

What questions do you think mommy's readers might have about the ride? M: "Does Billy the Goat really talk?"

Well there you have it-Big Thunder Mountain Railroad from a 3 year old's perspective!

Mason didn't get to do the interactive queue because we did Rider Switch Passes. If you do have to wait in the regular line, touch everything that looks like you shouldn't. Trust me!

And as far as whether or not Billy the Goat really talks, you just have to ride to find out but I will tell you he was freed and got his Mouse Ears! He's back at the ride now.

Want to see more of Mason's Disney adventures? Follow along on facebook.