Coasters & Castles Travel- Christopher Steele

22/11/2024

Here’s a nice early morning news drop from Disney! There have been lots of complaints from people on social media about the price of premiere pass, but in busy parks like Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios this could be an absolute life saver!

Disney didn’t design it to be a budget item on your vacation, but I feel like it’s in a nice sweet spot between the cheaper Multi Pass and the luxury-priced VIP tours which are charged by the hour.

With Premier Pass you get to use the Lightning Lanes at every ride in a park once at any time without making reservations for it. The price point puts it as high as $400 per day on the busiest days of the year at the Magic Kingdom. I can tell you that all you have to do is wait in line with 3 toddlers for an hour to understand why you would find value in this option. 😂😂😂

17/10/2024

I’m already trying to plan on checking out the new Epic Universe park in Orlando next year. Can I help you plan your next visit as well?

09/10/2024

"Should I cancel or move my trip?"

This is a loaded question that does not have a short answer (which actually makes this a bad social media topic 🤣). Nevertheless, with hurricane Milton getting ready to hit Florida and the Orlando area head on, there are THOUSANDS of people that have had to ask this question this week.

Having grown up up in South Louisiana, I'm no stranger to hurricanes. Here is what my suggestion would be to someone wondering whether Disney World is still the happiest place on earth in the middle of a major weather event:

1. Where is the storm going? The last few weeks have given us a "tale of two storms". Helene technically impacted the Orlando area, but it cause a very minimal disruption to Disney operations. With Milton heading directly towards Orlando, I would anticipate Disney World being closed for a couple days while they assess the full impact. You could very well have ridden out Helene in Orlando, spent a day at the resort during the storm, and been right back out to enjoy the rest of your vacation.

2. How strong is the storm? There is a major difference between a Category 5 and a Category 1. Orlando sits a little ways inland, so the storm won't hit it full force. The buildings and structures at Disney are also built to withstand very strong winds. Disney World will not in all likelihood be blown off of the map by a hurricane, but the sheer size of Milton is going to effect park operations for at least a day and a half. Rain and wind will begin long before the storm "lands", and it will stick around for quite a while after the storm "passes".

3. How long is your trip? If you are only in Disney World for 4 days and the parks are closed for 2 of those days, half of your trip will be impacted by the storm. If your trip is one or two weeks, 2 days may not make you bat an eye and you can simply rearrange your "rest days" to account for a brief interruption. If you had a short trip planned, you would most definitely have wanted to move your trip.

4. How long will local resources be impacted? Disney World may be able to get back up and running quickly, but there are other things to keep in mind that may indirectly affect your ability to get to and from Orlando. Are roads in and out of the city greatly affected? That can disrupt the availability of food and fuel, the second of which is necessary to get out of the Orlando area and beyond (much of the middle of the state will be greatly impacted and there could be a temporary fuel shortage over the course of a few days).

*The bonus answer to number 4 is that you may not necessarily feel the Disney magic when you are sitting in a resort cafeteria eating the most expensive ham sandwich and bottled water on earth. Hurricane experiences at Disney World DEFINITELY vary.

My personal opinion would be this: "When in doubt, move it out". It can be tough to process the idea of rescheduling a trip that you have been looking forward to for months and sometimes years! That doesn't even take into account all of the dining reservations and experiences that you may have already booked that will need to be rescheduled as well. However, don't leave anything to chance. The castle will still be there and the magic will still be waiting at a later date.

My thoughts and prayers go out to those who will be impacted over the next few days by Milton. Be safe and don't take any unnecessary risks!

07/10/2024

Traveling to and from Orlando is going to be increasingly difficult as the week goes along! My prayers are going out to those in the path of the hurricane. Everyone stay safe out there this week!

Operational Update/3 – Hurricane Milton
Together with our partners, a decision has been made to cease commercial operations on Wednesday morning, until circumstances permit safe operations to resume. We will continue to monitor Hurricane Milton to determine the potential impact at MCO. We ask you to please continue to work with your airline directly in regards to your specific flight.
Details: https://bit.ly/3TYjI0Y

02/10/2024

🚨🚨Deal Alert!!!🚨🚨

Disney dropped a couple of great promotions for the beginning of 2025 today! Reach out to me for more information!

01/10/2024

🏰Let’s talk resorts!🏰

I haven’t stayed at every Disney Resort (talk about a bucket list 😂), but I have stayed in every resort type! For my wife and I’s getaway in September I booked All-Star Sports because we just needed somewhere to lay our heads down at night. I had heard all of the complaints about the theming and room quality, but I’ve got something to tell you…..they were all wrong.

I actually REALLY liked the room, and we stayed here with all of the perks of staying on Disney property for less than the local off-site hotels because of a special that was being run.

Don’t get me wrong, I really love the luxury, theming and convenience of the Deluxe resorts; but if you are planning a shorter getaway, I would highly recommend choosing the All-Star Resorts. The only time you should absolutely avoid them is during the sports and cheer events in the Spring. Otherwise, this is a great option that want the in-site perks at a great price!

27/09/2024

Magic Kingdom fireworks as seen from the Polynesian Resort

26/09/2024

I wrote earlier this week about my favorite Epcot Food and Wine Festival food (Stone-baked bread in Morocco), so now it’s time to talk about the worst thing I tried.

Behold: The Warm Raclette Swiss Cheese from the Alps booth.

I waited in line excitedly because they were melting the cheese right off of a giant wheel of Swiss, but it was by far the least impressive plate. It was basically a scoop off Swiss Cheese, cold cut ham, a couple of baby potatoes, and a couple of baby pickles. The bread was cut like it was supposed to be a sandwich, but who knows how you are actually supposed to eat it.🤷🏻‍♂️

And let’s be honest, once you’ve eaten the fresh bread baked at the France pavilion, a piece of white bread slapped onto the plate just can’t live up to it.

The cheese was tasty, I ate the pickles, but everything else was put directly into the garbage can.

2/10. 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻

25/09/2024

I’ve been trying to share more tips and experiences from my latest Disney adventures, but Disney Parks released their foodie guide for Jollywood Nights at Hollywood Studios, and it’s got me feeling the spirit of Christmas early!🎅🏻🎄

This picture of the Holiday Mickey Hot Cocoa (which is a new addition to the party) has me adding tickets to the Christmas parties at Disney World to my Christmas list.

If you’d like to plan a holiday visit to Walt Disney World, send me a message to get started!

25/09/2024

I know, I know…the last thing we needed on the internet was another troll 😂

22/09/2024

Last weekend I tried a TON of food from the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. Of EVERYTHING that I tried, this is the best! This was the Stone-baked Bread from the Morocco pavilion, and it was absolutely amazing. They pulled the bread fresh from the wood fired oven and put it on our plate, and each of the dips were super flavorful.

18/09/2024

Welp, my wife and I took a short trip to go to the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival this past weekend, and here is my very best tip…..

DON’T GO ON A SATURDAY! 😂

I literally stood in line at the french fry booth longer than we waited in any line for a ride! The throng of crowds were so large that it gave me flashbacks of Pre-Covid era shopping on Black Friday. I could have gotten through the new standby line at TRON in a lesser amount of time than trying to order a Flauta at the Mexico pavilion. I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but the number of people utilizing World Showcase as a bar crawl over-inflated the booth lines making it next to impossible to try something in every country (which was our original goal).

As much as that may sound like a complaint, we had an amazing time and still got to try some awesome food that I’ll post about soon!

EPCOT’s festivals keep getting better and better, so if you want to check one of them out in 2025, let me know and I’d be happy to help plan your trip and festival visit (on a non-Saturday 😂).

14/09/2024

My absolute favorite character in the parks!

14/09/2024

Doing some important “research” today. Happy Birthday to me! 😂

13/09/2024

A little teaser of my birthday plans for the weekend….😎 🌎

11/09/2024

☔️As I sit in Louisiana waiting on hurricane Francine to officially make landfall, it’s got me thinking a LOT about rain.☔️

Anyone who has ever taken a trip to Disney World in the warm months (which is pretty much March through October) knows that you can almost always bank on there being a random rain shower in the afternoon! No matter what the forecast is in the weather app for your trip, make sure you always go to Disney ready for rain.

The bare minimum of preparation should be ponchos for everyone and a change of socks in your backpack. If you want to go up another level, make Crocs your shoe of choice so that you can simply take your socks off, let your feet get wet, and then throw a fresh pair of socks on once the rain stops. If you have a little one in a stroller, a stroller cover can also come in handy.

Something to keep in mind though is that they will not let you wear a poncho inside on the rides. For this reason, I would suggest keeping one of your backpacks relatively empty so you can quickly roll up everyone’s ponchos, ride, and then be able to quickly hand them back out before getting back into the rain.

Something else you can do is use the rain time to shop in one of the large park stores, watch one of the longer shows, or find a play place for the kids for the duration of the rain.

What Emma and I did in July was go into the closest restaurant and try something new to eat. The tough thing about that though is that everyone finds shelter in the closest indoor area. This makes finding seating for eating next to impossible (and don’t expect non-eaters to feel pity and give you a table).

To sum it all up in fewer words: don’t let the rain stop your day. Have a plan for when it happens and make the best of it!

05/09/2024

🏍Let's Talk About Tron!🏍

I had a whole post planned to share with you guys how I strategized to use the Virtual Queue and Lightning Lane purchase to ride Tron back to back at night.....and then Disney snuck this bit of information onto their website for the ride! 🤣

Beginning on September 9th, the virtual queue option will end and a standby line will be available. There are a lot of unhappy people online that like being able to snag a virtual queue at 7am and then not having to worry about it later. I, however, think that this is overall great for the park. Here's why:

1. For resort guests that "rope drop" at 8:30am at Magic Kingdom, there are only two lands that open until 9:00am: Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. The conventional strategy for "rope drop" was to either go Peter Pan or Seven Dwarves first. That led to these two rides having heavily inflated wait times right off the bat as the vast majority of people raced there first. With Tron entering standby and being in Tomorrowland, this opens up a third E Ticket ride that will help even out the crowds a bit more first thing in the morning.

2. Seven Dwarves is a good ride, but Tron is hands down way better. Seven Dwarves up to this point over the last handful of years has maintained a longer queue time throughout the day than any other ride in the park. For the most part it averages an hour or more. While I like the ride, I will never suggest standing in line for it for an hour. With Tron opening up and it being the newer, better ride; I'm hoping that it lessens the average wait time for Seven Dwarves to somewhere around 45 minutes. (Those that know my park strategies know that I don't enter a line any higher than 45 minutes unless it is the last ride of the day.)

3. The future outlook of wait times should vastly improve once Tiana's moves to standby as well. Disney had already previously announced that Tiana's wasn't going to remain a virtual queue option for long. Once it moves to standby, you will have four major time-eating attractions in the standby pool: Tiana's, Peter Pan, Seven Dwarves, Tron. With each of these attractions drawing it's fair share of guests into standby lines, traffic flow will improve tremendously (especially first thing in the morning at "rope drops").

What do you think of the changes coming to Tron?

22/08/2024

🍗Let' Talk Disney Food!🍗

Disney Parks carry with them the perception that everything is absolutely expensive. Everyone knows Disney has GREAT dining options, but everyone assumes that dining prices are going to be outrageous.

I am here to try and break that misconception!

What if I told you that me and my daughter ate at Disney World for every meal and averaged a total cost of $26 per meal (That is combined!). We can't grab lunch together at Chili's or Applebee's for less than $26 together.

Of course, if you fill your schedule with buffet dining, character dining, and deluxe dining reservations you will see your bank account empty faster than you can say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious; but if you eat mainly quick service meals and know which ones to go to, then you can eat some amazing food options for no more than you can go to your local Chick-fil-a.

Want to know what my top favorite quick service spots in the parks are? Well, that's another post for another day. So don't plan on packing your own PB&J for lunch the next time you are in the Magic Kingdom. Plan ahead, know what you want to eat, and set a budget and have an amazing time checking out the best foods Disney has to offer.