Aladdin Westend Musical London

It's been three years since Aladdin musical came to London West End. And we went to see it on the second day because we couldn't get the tickets for the premier day, however we decided to go to see the musical again after all this time

After all we have seen The lion king musical three or four times, I can't keep count anymore. And since I love Disney and we managed to find great offer for the musical we booked our tickets for last Monday. We got a front row seats in the middle of the theatre, which was great! 

We had a clear view no ones head in front of you and you actually felt like they were at your home just for the reason that the actors were so close to you and great view

Unfortunately, like all of the musicals and theater shows, it is prohibited to take any pictures or video of the show. However I really enjoyed it, it was almost like the movie, some parts has changed little bit but it wasn't disturbing, since the changes are minimal and it's been produced very well

The most beautiful parts of the musical is when Aladdin and Jasmine are flying on the magic carpet while the orchestra is playing "A whole new world" - song. The moment is magical, the way how they have made the sky full of stars and that you really cannot see how the magic carpet is flying.
But I also love the way how all of the costumes are made, they are full of rhinestones and while the actors are dancing the entire stage is dazzling

After all the musical is great and definitely if I will have a chance to see it one more time or maybe even fourth time I would definitely go. And if you have any chance to get first row seat I highly recommend to do so. You get the feeling like the actors are actually dancing to you. And like always I wanted to get some souvenirs to bring back home. First time when we went to see the musical I bought a key ring so this time we took an ornament for out Disney christmas tree and Aladdin pin

- Tiia 

Walt Disney World - Fast Pass +

Time time is getting closer every day and soon it's time to pack all our Mickey Mouse clothes in to luggages and head to Walt Disney World ! However before that on  our 60 day window arrived last week and we did our fastpass+ selections!

What is better than have fast passes and get fairly quick to the rides and especially those popular ones that stand by line is longer than 60 minute wait. How do we choose our fast passes and what time of the day we plan them?

As most of the people who goes to Walt Disney World knows that they can choose their fast passes 60 or 30 days before their planned stay, however this depends if you stay on or off site. On site you get the advantage of choosing your fast passes two months before your stay which is really great advantage if you are trying to get one of the most popular or new rides.

I am not the most experienced Disney person ever but we have noticed using our fast passes this way has been the best for our holidays. It all depends the age of your party and weather you want to have brakes from the parks during the day

Which rides we usually choose for the fast passes?


Depending on the parks, but most of the fast passes we do use for thrill rides. One reason is that most of the time they have quite a bit of queue but also because those are our favourite rides, but we also love Winnie the pooh ride and Peter Pans Flight. Two rides we never skip in Magic Kingdom

Animal Kingdom one of our must do ride is Mount Everest. We always take a fast pass for this, just to be sure we get to do it, even though sometimes the wait for the ride is not even long but you never know. Also Kali river rapids is our list most of the time, however sometimes we risk to queue and we do not choose a fast pass for this ride

Hollywood studios, the fast passes goes only for thrill rides expect one. before this upcoming holiday, our fast passes has always been Rock 'n' Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror and the last choice for the day is always Indiana Jones, this is something we cannot skip. My boyfriend loves him and I cannot take the joy away from him to have a nice seating for the show. He always does so much for me, so this is his number one thing to do.

Epcot feel like it is the most 'relaxing' park, if I can say that. what we love to do is Frozen ride in Norway pavilion. I could say it is my boyfriends favourite ride in Epcot, I mean such a huge Indiana Jones fan and the next day he loves Elsa... all I can say I'm glad he loves Disney.
And we always take the meet Mickey and his pals fast pass. Just to get nice memories on our visit at his home.

And now, what time of the day do we plan our fast passes. We usually take one fast pass for late morning, around 11am-12pm and after that we do the rides that don't have that much of a queue till 3-4pm and we have two fast passes quite close to each other, depending what we are able to catch.
The reason for this to have small brake during the lunch time is that usually there's less queue because of families with small children have to have a lunch break and maybe even a nap / pool time at the resort. Also after the two more fast passes we hope to get some extra fast passes for the rest of the evening, we don't mind what those are, even if we get a fast pass for Dumbo, we are more than happy.

So this is the way how we plan our must do rides. We try to use all of the fast passes quite early, but not at the time that maybe it's not that necessary. The parks will be more full during the evening time so we have found this to be great for us to enjoy the rides we like and maybe couple more rides later in the evening after hour fast pass selections.

I would be more than happy to hear how do you plan your fast passes, let me know in the comment box below!

- Tiia

In The West End Summer Pop-Up

There are two Disney musicals currently showing here in Londons West End. I have seen both Aladdin and The Lion King musical, The lion king is my favourite one, I could go to see it again so many times!

But if there are any Disney fans in London or anyone who is coming to London and wants to see the musicals,  I really do recommend both of them and still for this weekend if you are visiting London, head to Covent Garden and go to see In the West End- pop up store! 

I posted some photos of the even on Instagram but if you haven't had time to see it there, here is little but more detailed the event

When you walk in to the pop up store you are able to see few of the dancers costumes, Mufasa, Rafiki, Zazu, Zeebra and head pieces of Lioness and Simba from The lion King musical which was the biggest part of the pop up shop

From Disney's Aladdin musical there was a smaller section of the store, but the most fun part was that you were actually able to take 4 photos with Genies lamp in the treasure cave and they even printed them out for you 

There were also two costumes from Aladdin, Sultans dress and another dress from the musical, but pardon me, unfortunately I can't remember whose dress it was

When we entered to the store they had at 11am starting small tour of the costumes and dresses. The cast members explained small details of each costumes which some were actually surprising!

What I learned about the tour is that Each of the Lion king head pieces are not made of wood, they are just hand painted to seem like they are made out of oak or some similar kind of wood, but of course that would be too heavy material for the dancers to wear while dancing. But the headpieces are looking amazing with the details they have and also what I learned was that each of the headpieces are repainted after each show just a little bit to make sure it is as good as new and they are completely replaced each year since adding the paint makes them heavier

A little note from Aladdin, sultans dress is full of hand sewed crystals and there are over 1400 crystals in the costumes and if any of them falls during the show it is sewed straight back in after the scene. 

If you have any questions related to these two musicals and you decided to go to see the store, feel free to ask, they have such amazing knowledge


They are arranging different program each day and also at the end of the day there is one little bit more special event happening, and the cast members said that the last one is the most popular and it is recommended to arrive about 30mins before scheduled starting time

After you have seen everything they also have arranged Genie lamp hunt, you need to find 4 different Genie magic lamps around Covent Garden Market place and you'll bring your note of the word you find letters from those lamps and you'll receive a small gift 

Which musical, Aladdin or The lion King do you like more? 

- Tiia

Disneyland Paris - Disney Stars on Parade

Who doesn't love Disney parades? While we spent our first time in Disneyland Paris we really didn't have too much time to see everything but one thing we never miss is the parades

Currently in the Disneyland park there is the 25th anniversary celebration going on still for few more months and they have their own Disney Stars on Parade which is taking place every day at 5.30 pm.

I am all about princess life and I love that princesses are taking such a huge part of the shows in the park. Several times a day there is the Starlit Princess Waltz and during the Parade you will see all of the princesses but who doesn't love princes as much as princesses? Or maybe even little bit more, this is why Disneyland Paris is amazing for Princess lovers

Here is one really good tip to know, in case you own Infinity Annual Pass, call and book a slot for a vip are to see Disney Stars on Parade. This is only for Infinity pass holders, but it is an amazing benefit you can have. You will see the parade with great view, but keep in mind you can book these slots 14 days prior your travel and there are only certain amount available spaces, so whenever you have confirmed your travel dates and you hit the 14 day count book the slot for you

Otherwise if you definitely want to have a good spot for the parade it is best to go to the spot as early as possible. I know some people do start to reserve their sport for the show about 1,5 hours before. It is quite a long time before, but you will definitely have the spot of your choice

We were actually lucky, got quite good spots in front of the castle while the parade had already started, but just because for some reason people moved (possibly got a space in a better place) and this way opened nice space for us

Which spectacular do you like more, The Disney Stars on Parade or Illuminations night time firework show?

- Tiia

Disneyland Paris 365 days a Year

Have you been dreaming of going to Disney 365 days a year? I have and I still am dreaming about it but dreaming is nearly over. I am currently saving money for infinity annual pass for Disneyland Paris

Unfortunately our holiday plans are excluding Walt Disney World trips for next year maybe even one year after but there is a solution for this problem, annual pass to Dlp. As if you have seen my very first post on this blog was my first impression of Disneyland Paris and that was the trip to go to check if it is worth of having the annual pass there and yes for me everything related to Disney is worth of money

When planning to buy the annual pass for Disneyland Paris there are few things to concider before buing it

Number one is which AP to buy, Discovery, Magic flex, Magic plus or Infinity

It all depends on you, do you want that there are no bloc out dates on your pass or necessary you don't need that many days to go to Disney and you find that Discovery pass is the most suitable pass for you.
Discovery pass is the one that has the least amount of benefits and Infinity pass has the most of the benefits. Infinity pass includes for an example priority seats on the special section for parades and illuminations firework shows, but these ones has to be preordered before hand.

Discovery and Magic flex has much fewer days to go into the parks and these passes do not give you any discounts when shopping or going for a character dinning. But if you are happy to be able to just enter to the parks during the days it is allowing you, these two passes are great for this reason. I wouldn't spend more on the pass if you have a feeling you wouldn't be using all of the benefits each pass is offering you.

Where to buy AP

There are few different ways of buing the annual pass. You can either go on the UK website of Disneyland Paris and print out the application form and send it by mail back to Disney or you can practise your french skills and go on the french website of Disneyland Paris and fill up the online form which is in French but you can make friends with Google translate and it’s easy to do, this way you don’t need to send the application form by mail.

However there is to keep in mind if you apply the pass in advance online the pass will be dated when you send the application form and to reach UK it will take approximately 10 days, but on the website it has been stated that it is possible that it may take up to 6 weeks to arrive. But whenever you have received the annual pass you can make AP discounted reservations straight away, depending which discounts you are entitled to have with your AP.

If you are not a fan of ordering the pass online it is possible to purchase the AP from the ticket offices at Disneyland Paris. The process is quite simple and not consuming too much time. You tell the CM at the ticket office that you would like to buy annual pass and they will process it and give you a pass to enter to the park which needs to be changed to the annual pass during the same day.
When you go to annual pass office inside the park, all you need to have is an ID with you and in case you want to pay with monthly instalments they will take your direct debit details, and they will also take your photo at the annual pass office.

In case you are looking for a 10% discount for your annual pass price, look for a sponsor. This isactually very easy thing. At first I was wondering that it is not easy and difficult to find a sposors and since you may not know your sponsor it could be strange to ‘interrupt’ someones magical day. However I put more time into looking more information for annual pass sponsors and I actually learned it will be quite easy and people are actually looking forward to sponsor people since also the sponsor will gain benefits of sponsoring new passholders.

One of the easiest way is to go on facebook and join to Disneyland Paris annual pass group. And ask in case someone is there at the same time with you and you will find someone to sponsor you for sure. You can also try different groups (where it is allowed) but this is the group I’ve got so much information and I find it very helpful for any kind of questions regarding to annual pass for Disneyland Paris

These are the most important things to consider when buying Annual pass to Disneyland Paris, but if you have some more information I haven't mentioned, feel free to let me know in the comment section!

-Tiia 

Tips for Planning Your Magical Holiday

When planning a Disney holiday in Walt Disney World it might be a bit overwhelming, at least for first timers. There is so much information on Disney's own website and recommendations from people who has been going to Disney many times, the most important thing is to make the holiday the most magical for your family

Here are few tips that I found useful when planning our first Disney holiday from home last September. I'm not saying I'm an expert of planning Disney holidays, it depends so much of each family what experience is the most important and the highlight of the holiday

1. Using my Disney Experience app. It is available for smartphones, Android and Apple and it is so useful before, during and even after your holiday.
Beforehand you can make your dining reservation through the app, choose your magicband colour (if staying on site) and reserving your fast passes, depending if they are included in your ticket or you have purchased it as an extra for your tickets

During your holiday it is so convenient in case you want to change your fastpass choices or to check if you are eligible for extra fast passes after you have used your daily fastpass choices or you can even see the daily show times on app and opening times for each park.

There are so many ways how to use my Disney experience that it would take long post to go through all its functions, but I can guarantee that not using the app will make your holiday planning more complicated

2. Dining Plan. This is a subject that can be worth of the price or not. If you know your family loves to go for Character dinings and are planning to do several of them, I would recommend to add Disney Dining Plan on your reservation, it will become cheaper than paying them out of pocket, but if you know you will do only one Character dining, maybe it is better to have only Quick service plan and just save the extra cost for the dinner

This is how we have done for all of our previous Disney holidays, but our next upcoming holiday in November, we have decided to upgrade the Quick service dining plan to Disney dining plan and make several character meals throughout the holiday.
And in case someone is having a Disney holiday on a budget the best way might be packing your own meals and snacks for the park and maybe have a one lunch/ dinner at park and share it with children or buy one or two snacks on the holiday

3. Photopass. Another extra which may not be included into your ticket, or additional purchase to your ticket. I do believe it is worth of the money, even it may be a bit pricey additional magic to your holiday. In Walt Disney World there are so many photo pass points and you can have amazing magic shoots, regular photos and even some rides has their own photopass point which will be loaded on to your magicbands and there later you can download all of the photos on any of your devices which you like through My Disney Experience

4. Special Event Tickets. Depending what time of the year you are going to Disney World, they are arranging several special events which requires you to buy a separate ticket on top of your tickets you have purchased for your holiday. This depends so much of each family, do they think is it worth of paying extra or not. We did go for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, which was amazing for us, we loved it so much and so we have also purchased tickets for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.  These are the only special even tickets we have considered worth of the money. I do recommend to buy the tickets in advance in order to secure your place on the event if you are willing to attend to these events, since they do tend to sell out. I find it the best way to book these tickets are through Disney and by phone, but some of you may use travel agents which is where you can also add these tickets on your reservation

5. FastPass + service. If you have this service utilise it. It is such a great feature to arrange and secure your spot at least on the most popular rides in Disney. You don't want to be spending all your holiday in line, this is great way to minimise the waiting lines and as I have mentioned before everything you can do on your phone, choose the fast passes and change them in case your plans has changed and you feel like you can't make your fast pass slot, but before changing your fastpass choice remember, you have one hour time to touch your magicband and join the queue

6. Rest Day. This is really important, I would try to do the rest day, which you can spend at the resort enjoying the pool and other facilities of the resort and/ or go to Disney Springs for a day for shopping, relaxing and eating out. I made this mistake on our first trip, we didn't have a proper rest day at any point, we only had one evening few hours time to go through Disney Springs which wasn't enough, first because we were so tired being in the parks from morning till evening everyday and we just didn't have enough time to explore all Disney Springs

When we are planning our Disney holidays, My Disney Experience app and Walt Disney World website are our best friends. I do not really like to call to Disney and do bookings, I'm do it myself girl and only call if there is a problem. But there are many ways to book your holiday, wether it is directly from Disney or through an agent. It doesn't matter how you plan your family's holiday in Disney there is magic and it will create unforgettable memories

- Tiia

Top 3 Disney Clothing

I am a girl who doesn't like shopping, expect Disney shopping. Therefore I am terrible person when it comes to clothing shopping. I literally buy clothes whenever I get a hole into my shirt or my jeans are about to brake, this is  who I am

However recently I have become more conscious of cloth shopping, okei, let's be specific, Disney clothing shopping. As you can see everything I love to do is somehow related to Disney. In this post I will present my favourite Disney clothes I am wearing all the time now, if you have seen some of my Instagram stories you might have noticed for sure these clothes on me more than once or twice, I'm sure of it.

So let's start with the Mickey Mouse Dungaree skirt from Forever 21. If you have gone through any Disney related instagram post, I'm sure you have seen at least once somewhere. The black Dungaree dress and on the chest level there is a huge Mickey's head without his ears though.
In that minute when the dress arrived I had to wear it, it is my absolute number one dress at the moment. Also the weather has been amazing in the UK, well at least in London since the weekend, it is the perfect dress to wear and you don't even need to cover your upper body and Mickey with a hoodie.
I'm really recommending you to get your hands to this dress if you have even the slightest chance, I'm positive that you won't regret your choice!

The second piece of clothing is another Dungaree, but it is with shorts not with a skirt. This I bought from Primark couple months ago. At first I wasn't in love with it, but somehow I had a feeling that I just cannot leave it to the store, if I would do that next time I would die to get it and it would be sold out. So I bought the dungaree and now I'm trying to decide which dungaree dress to wear since there is no chance to wear both of them at the same time, hard life choices. What I love about Primark is that they do so many different kind of Disney clothing and such a cheap price! If you don't mind to shop outside of Disney Store, head to Primark in case you have one in your country

The last, but not least of my favourite Disney clothing is another item from Primark. It is colourful striped Mickey shirt and it says Mickey Mouse and next to that there is a small Mickeys head printed.  One fun fact that also makes me to love shop in Primark is that whenever you buy Disney clothing most of the time on the shirt there is a disney character tag on the clothing. When I bought my Stitch shirts from there I got different Stitch tags with the shirts and the Mickey shirts has it's own Mickey tags

These are my current favourite Disney clothes but I can't promise for how long the top 3 will stay like this. From Disneyland Paris I bought a gorgeous maxi dress which has Mickeys head shilouttes all over the dress but I haven't had a time to wear it yet, so that's why it's not (yet) on my top 3 list

What is your favourite place to shop Disney clothing? And what is your favourite clothing at this moment?

-Tiia

Disneyland Paris - My First Impression

I will start my Blog with this post about Disneyland Paris. It's been exactly one week when we came back from our short trip to Disneyland Paris for my birthday.
Everything what I write on  this post is my own and honest opinion about the park and it will only be about Disneyland Paris park, not Walt Disney studios, since we didn't have time to there too

Like Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney world in Florida, I get shivers and I'm nearly tearing up when we are about to pass that tiny corner of Main street USA before seeing the castle in the middle of the park, and this is the most exiting part for me when I'm entering to the parks. The castle is the centre piece of the parks and both Paris and Orlando has stunning castles, I love both of them.

I was stunned to see the castle and it's surroundings, and yes this is the time we spent a lots of time. Since we entered to the park straight when it opened we had good time to have pictures with the castle with less crowds. Who doesn't love to have these pictures to post on facebook and Instagram?
And one good tip is to have beautiful pictures with the castle is to stay little after the Illuminations fire work show and wait that most of the people has rushed away, the cast members are not kicking you out of the park straight away!

I will go for the cons and pros what I found in the park, I do not have experience from anywhere else than in Walt Disney world, so I am comparing these two parks and how I find them myself.

Let's start with the positive aspect of the park,
What I loved more than anything in Disneyland Paris, that it is way more relaxing to have a trip there than in Magic Kingdom. Of course you could do dining reservations in the parks in Paris too and it is encouraged in case you want to try their character meals and other sit down restaurant. But we only ate on the go since we were in the park only for one day because we couldn't get more time off from work and we had to travel back to UK on the next day.

The fastness system is for everyone, you don't need to be planning the fast passes 60 or 30 days before and worry that you might not get the fastpass you were hoping for. In Paris you go to the ride that offers fastpass service and you just need to scan the ticket in order to get this fastpass ticket and it is telling you your fastpass entrance time. Just to keep in mind that fastpasses are more likely to run out on the most popular rides and there are way less options for the rides that offer this service than Magic Kingdom.

Another good side of DPL is that there are more characters that are 'rare' in WDW. For an example we had a great time with Jafar and had pictures taken with him and I know Jafar and Genie are characters that you are able to find in WDW only on a certain occasion. And on a normal day you are able to find Pinocchio, the mice of Cinderella, Suzy, Mary and Perla

And now let's move for the cons of Disneyland Paris

First that was quite a bit of disappointment in the park was the lack of Mickey shaped food and disney style foods. What I found strange is that the park sold Magnum ice cream bars instead of Mickey ice cream bars, which probably they would sell even more, since all we know that mickey ice cream bars makes great pictures ! And I love Disney for its food, I love to have everything Mickey shaped, it just makes the food taste better.

Another thing is that Dlp is missing a bit of Magic in the park, when we went to the park we realised that we felt like going to a regular amusement park where is Disney around. The cast member are way more polite and more magical in WDW. For an example Peter Pan's flight is not the same in case you don't get your pixie dust spread on your flying boat before the departure. And we actually encountered with cast members that didn't even say hi, when you wanted to purchase something, this is something what hasn't happened to us before in Disney. But not to forget those amazing cast members that were so helpful and kind to us.

And my last con is not really a con, it is the way it is in every Disney Park that is not located in English speaking country. So the songs of Disney were sung in French, like I said I can understand it, since it is in France, but I am so used to the songs in English and for me it sounds way too weird to hear the little mermaid songs in french. But that is something that I just need to get used to it when keep going in Disneyland Paris

Overall we had a blast in Dlp and yes we are going again there and after our next trip to Orlando we are about to buy the annual passes to Disneyland Paris. Yet to remember we had only one day in the Park and one morning in Disney Village and it was definitely not time enough. There is a chance that we just had some bad luck with the cast members and next time when we go we're gonna have better encounter with them

How do you find Disneyland Paris?

- Tiia