The McFive Circus

SNAKE CLASH!

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 13:46:00 GMT

The concept of the game is simple. You start out as a snake eating pellets and other snakes to grow to be the largest snake on the board in a 1 minute and 20 second round. You need to avoid snakes of a higher rank or your game will be over when they eat you. In order to eat a snake you have to have a higher level than them and you just run over their head. Their head is worth +10 pellets and each body piece is worth +5 pellets. The more you eat the more coins you collect at the end of your battle. That is the only game mode that I can locate. On the App Store it says there are a bunch of game modes including Time Limit Battle (where you can adjust the time it appears), Infinity Battle and Team Battle. Those could have been fun adjustments to have multiple game modes. It would have been fun to be able to play with the kids too.

You can use your coins earned during battle to increase your Start Level, Speed and Item Power. Each one helps. Everyone starts at level 1 so having a higher starting level can be a huge advantage to eat those little snakes right when the game starts. I personally feel Speed is the most important stat to increase. You can tell the players who haven’t increased their speed. They move more like snails then snakes. When your snake is faster it is easier to catch the smaller snakes and avoid the larger snakes. Item Power is great too because there are speed boosts, shields and magnets on the board. Speed boosts are a great item. This gives you extra speed temporarily. The magnets are extremely useful when there are a lot of snake bodies spread around the board that haven’t been eaten. Your snake will suck them up like a vacuum and grow quickly.

You can collect new skins in various ways. As you play battles (whether you win or lose) you earn coins to increase your skills. There are missions to complete, and the rewards include a snakeskin. The missions you can complete include eating pellets, eating other snakes, spending coins, obtaining skill upgrades and defeating the boss. When you defeat a boss, you get to choose from 3 snakes to add to your collection.

Unfortunately, there are only 6 of these types of reward chests that include snake skins and eventually you run out of rewards that include snakes, and you only get coins and diamonds from the bonus chest. Diamonds are another way to collect snake skins. The snake skins can be expensive, but diamonds actually aren’t that hard to earn. I played for a week and earned over 800 diamonds. Common skins are about 5 diamonds, rare skins are about 15-25 diamonds, epic skins are about 150 diamonds, and legendary skins are about 360 diamonds. You can also earn skins by watching ads. If you are doing a different activity such as cleaning your room, homework or watching tv you can easily let these ads run while you are working on something else and boom you earned a snakeskin.

Diamonds can also be used to buy different feed but that is more of an in-game preference what you want to watch your snake eat. There doesn’t seem to be any bonus for updating this.

Any time you defeat a Boss you level up to the next stage (battlefield). When you get to each stage there is an option to level up your Talent. Here you can use your coins to purchase experience, gold, start level, feeding range, and speed boosts. There is also a path to increase these items using diamonds. It can cost a lot of diamonds, so I didn’t do this side. There are only 30 stages listed. In one short week of play I got to level 20.

Each day you are placed in a world rank. The higher your ranking tier the higher your rewards on a daily basis. The rewards aren’t significant (some coins and diamonds) and if you play a few games you move up pretty quickly. I wouldn’t put much focus here.

Randomly there is an extra game mode that lasts for 60 minutes. In this game mode every game you play and stay alive your score multiplier increases up to x20. The reward for this game mode is huge. If you come in first place you earn 100 diamonds. I don’t know what kicks off this event but when this happens it is beneficial to spend a little extra time playing to earn your multiplier to receive the diamonds. If you get eaten during this game mode, they give you a chance to revive yourself by using either diamonds or watching a video. I would watch the video if I had a large multiplier that way I didn’t have to start over.

I would recommend this game as a once in a while game. You can play it while you only have a few minutes, so it is a very low commitment level. There are no in game reading or cut screens to skip. The ads are frequent but if you aren’t using them to earn something they are only about 10 seconds long.

Tips

If you go to the store and scroll all the way to the bottom you can receive 5 diamonds for free per day. It’s not a lot but it adds up.
I don’t see any reason to buy anything in the store. The game is not that hard to earn rewards.
If you don’t know if you are bigger than another snake aim for their body not their head. If you can eat the body, you are bigger than them. If you bounce off of their body, they are either bigger than you or they have a shield.
Make sure you take your lucky spin daily. It is free and you can earn gold, diamonds, a snakeskin or level up an item.
After each battle you can watch an extended ad to multiply your coins x2, x3 or x4. Sometimes it is worth it to let the ad play if you are gaining a significant amount of coins. Like when you are brushing your teeth or getting dressed after playing a round. Just let the ad play while you do your activity.
If you are doing a different activity such as cleaning your room, doing homework or watching tv you can easily let snakeskin ads run while you are working on something else and boom you earned a snakeskin.

Jordan:

I liked how satisfying it was to eat the snakes in the game. It made a cute noise like bop bop bop. When I heard that noise I started to laugh because it was so funny ��. I also like the abilities you can buy with coins before the game. The abilities you can buy before playing the game are start level, speed, and item power. The abilities really helped in the game. The one that helped the most is start level because you can eat people at the beginning of the game when your level is high. I do not have any problems with the game. I would recommend this game!

Isabelle:

What I like about Snake Clash is that you can eat other snakes in the game. I also like that you can buy start level and speed. These helped me a lot because when I used start level it makes it easier to eat other people. Also, you can play the game without WiFi so that means you can play it on an airplane.

I think that the skins are really cool but some of them you have to watch an ad for. My favorite skin I have is the Among Us skin.

What I don’t like about Snake Clash is that every time you play a level you have to watch an ad. Also to get a new skin you have to watch an add. I think that the game is good but it could be better. There is a time limit in the game when you are playing then you have to try and defeat the boss. I think that they could add more time and less ads.

I recommend this game but if you don’t want to watch an ad every time you are done with a level I don’t recommend it. But you can turn your phone on airplane mode and not have to watch one single ad.

Tips and tricks! One tip and trick is that every day you can spin a wheel to see if it lands on anything good.

Our app of the week is Snake Clash! This game had 374K ratings on the App Store with an average of 4.7 Stars when we started! It was ranked #8 on the Chart for Simulations.

Outer Banks, NC - Things to Do!

Sat, 10 May 2025 17:19:00 GMT

We recently took a family vacation to Kill Devil Hills in the Outer Banks, NC. Beach areas like this make for great vacations with extended family. The Outer Banks are filled with beaches, restaurants and historical sites. Here is a list of things to do in the Outer Banks and our review of them.

Jockey's Ridge State Park - Dare County

Anytime somewhere is free to enter while you are on vacation you can consider that a win. Price aside this place was incredible. It is comprised of large sand dunes that give you the feeling of being in the desert. Note: if you are traveling here keep in mind it can be a brutal, tiring walk up the sandy dunes. Some members of your party may need help.

When you first enter the dunes, it looks like they are going to go on for miles. It is only once you get to the top of the dunes and you have a wonderful panoramic view which includes the ocean and the bay, that you remember you are still on a beach island. The wind is really strong here. This is my kids first experience with a kite, and it is the perfect set up for success. The wind picks the kites up easily and the fly for a long time. It is a great introduction to flying a kite. For those looking for more activities, there is Hang Gliding offered for a fee.

Depending on your level of adventure, you could spend a couple of hours or more here.

��Kellie, Isabelle, Preston - loved it, lots of fun to fly kites

��Jordan - to windy, the sand blowing around made it so I couldn't see

Currituck Light House - Corolla

It was $13 per person to enter the lighthouse, which seemed steep. I just looked on their website and 77% of admission is tax deductible as a charitable donation. So, I'll save that receipt for my accountant and see what she says :)

I don't climb many lighthouses, and this is the first my kids have been in. There are 220 steps in total so there is a workout involved here. There are railings so that helps a little if you aren't a good climber. I tried counting the steps on the way up and only got to 216 so I must have lost count or didn't include the few steps leading up to the lighthouse.

If you are scared of heights or think you might be I wouldn't necessarily recommend this one. However, the panoramic view you get once you are on top is absolutely incredible. I will tell you I ventured to the edge of the walkway at the top but for the most part I clenched against the lighthouse. It was really windy. Sometimes you don't know you have a fear of heights until you experience heights. Preston did not want to be on the outside at the top of the lighthouse, and I completely get that. One large gust and he could have become a kite. The walk down was a lot easier than the walk up.

There is a visitor center on site. This was free! This included a historical video about Corolla. The video was interesting. It took you through the early days of the Currituck Sound being a destination for duck hunting. It built on how this activity influenced the economics of the area. The hunters made hunting clubs, which in turn needed employees. They needed decoys for their hunting expeditions so it created jobs for those who could make duck decoys. I'm not sure the kids loved the video, but I found it very fascinating.

��Jordan - beautiful view

��Kellie, Isabelle, Preston - to many steps, to expensive, thought I might die

Whalehead Club

This tour takes about 45 minutes. It is a walk through ipad guided tour. If you don't want to listen to the stories and you just want to see what the house looks like you could probably get through it in 5-10 minutes. But it costs around $5-7 per person, so you might as well enjoy the historical story being told.

The house is a 21,000 sq feet and 5 stories in Currituck Heritage Park. According to our tour guide, the home took 4 years to build and 4 years to restore. The view from the front porch is incredible. You could definitely hang out on the porch all day if they would let you. The home was built for Edward Knight and his wife Marie-Louis LeBel. The intricacies of the house and the woodwork in it were really impressive. It was also interesting to see and hear how the rich back in the day lived.

One of the stories that intrigued me was that the real-life James Bond was at one of the parties and this is where the character came from. I totally could have misunderstood that though.

Overall, this was interesting, but I don't suspect it was the kid's favorite adventure. If you are a fan of history or architecture I would suspect this is a neat place to visit.

You weren't allowed to take pictures here, for safety purposes. ��‍♂️

��

��Kellie, Jordan, Isabelle, Preston - creepy, resource guarding by the employees, couldn't touch anything, couldn't take pictures

North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island

Aquariums are always fun. We had a day that was listed in the weather app as overcast with possible rain. It turns out everyone with kids had the same idea. We all went to the aquarium. It was bonkers. The cost is around $13 but if you are a AZA (Associate of Zoos and Aquariums) member you can get a 50% discount on 4 tickets. Make sure you collect your discount if you are a reciprocal member.

The aquarium was on the smaller side of aquariums I have been to. But the kids loved it. Some of their favorite animals were the otter and the jellyfish. The otter was very active while we were there swimming back and forth for everyone to see. The jellyfish looked like they were in the fluorescent area at Spencer's (store in the mall, if anyone goes to malls anymore).

The petting area was cool. The kids spent a lot of time here picking up sea creatures and petting stingrays. I really enjoyed the large tank that held the sharks. We just missed feeding time, but it was still fun to watch these large creatures swimming past the glass. It made for a good picture area as well.

This facility has a Turtle rescue and rehabilitation center. You can walk through and see various turtles that are being nursed too healthy again. There is an interactive area at the end where you can analyze and rehabilitate a turtle. It was fun for the kids. The downside was there are only about 6 turtles to rehabilitate, with 2 stations that have 4 computers each and there are about 15 kids in line. The process is slow and takes about 5 minutes.

You're looking at about 2 hours at the aquarium, unless you really love marine animals. It was a fun 2 hours though and I would do this again next time we are in Outer Banks.

��Jordan, Isabelle, Preston - it was cute, loved the otters, the turtle exhibit was fun

��Kellie - dinky

Festival Park - Roanoke

If you enjoy history and educational experiences this may be a good option for you. Admission was $11 for adults and $8 for kids. Festival Park provides the history of the voyage of the 1585 colonists. Among the sites is a replica of the Elizabeth II, that was used for the voyage. The living quarters on the ship were not large at all and to my best recollection the person working the ship told me there were 100 people on the ship. I couldn't have done it. I would have been way to claustrophobic.

The highlight for us was the interactive village area. This area included many contracted positions who were used to build the settlement. Of them there was a Blacksmith, who hung out making nails. It looked like a lot of work to get one or two nails. Each family left with a nail as a souvenir. We plan to use the nail in a spot in the house as a reminder of the trip. I couldn't imagine that painful of a process today to get a nail. There was a Woodsman (there's probably a better term) who had an interesting contraption using a long bow he found in the woods and a foot pedal to make wood pieces. Finally, there was a person manning the pillory, the wooden contraption you put your head and arms in if you are being punished.

There was a museum there as well to expand your knowledge even further about the history of the island. The Lost Colony from 1587 is a very interesting story and a big mystery. Outside the back of the museum is a large unoccupied field with a stage. There must be shows in the busy season. But this gave us a fun place to play outside.

Again, if you like history or you enjoy learning this is a good place for you. If you aren't familiar with the history of the island, the colonies or if you don't enjoy reading a lot, I would highly suggest bringing a friend or family member who knows the history. It's fantastic! It's like having your own private tour guide to explain everything to you.

��Kellie, Isabelle, Preston - good but don't need to go back, fun but could have more to do

��Jordan - didn't really like it

Duck - Boardwalk and shopping

About 20 minutes away from Kill Devil Hills is a little city called Duck. This is where the first Duck Donuts was. If you haven't had Duck Donuts you should make this a priority if you see one. If I need a donut on a regular basis, I prefer Dunkin' over Duck but for a once in a while treat Duck is the way to go. All you really need is the basic Cinnamon Sugar donut to be fulfilled but there are so many options available.

Duck is an area for Shopping. It is a bit of a walking tour. There is a boardwalk that spans about a mile on the Currituck Sound. One thing I discovered is there aren't a lot of bathrooms along the path so plan accordingly. The boardwalk itself is more of a nature walk. We saw a bunch of fish, turtles, ducks, etc. The shopping is mostly quaint shops at the ends and there is access to a SuperWings and Life is Good store about halfway through.

Tip: if your party has two cars park one at the beginning and one at the end. You will thank me later. Credit this tip to my brother-in-law. He saved me so much energy from walking back.

This is a potentially free experience so you can't beat the price as long as you have the ability to say no when you are asked to buy stuff.

��Kellie, Jordan, Isabelle, Preston - loved it!

��

Sugar Planet

It's exactly what it sounds like. A store filled with candy. A place where kids could spend all your money quick. They will love it. But just be careful if you let them but candy by the pound. There are no scales so that stuff adds up quickly. Its $15 per pound. A pound isn't that much. Then they have candies that are just filled with liquid. Liquid is heavy.

This place has candy, clothing, stuffed animals, baked goods, ice cream. You really can't go wrong at Sugar Planet and the Kids will love it!

��Kellie, Jordan, Isabelle, Preston - loved it!

��

Super Wings

Driving through the Outer Banks, it felt like there was one of these at every corner. And when there wasn't one at the corner, there was a Super Wings across from a Super Wings. You really couldn't miss it. I assume each store carries the same goods, but we only went in two of them not all 20.

This is your typical shore destination tchotchke shop. They have some good deals. Lots of clothing! Lots of toys! Lots of swimwear and beach items! Lots of coffee mugs! Lots of inflatables! For us that looks like lots of props for our videos! Yep, we bought a giant chicken for $60 that squawks for 45 seconds. It's the most impressive yet most annoying chicken you have ever encountered. We bought a couple of mugs that are supposed to be 2 for $20 but the cashier was struggling so hard with the 4 things she had to ring up I just didn't have the heart to let her know about the price differential. You could see from the panic in her eyes and looking around for another employee she knew the price was wrong, but I let her know I was good to pay. You win some you lose some. But the mugs were great addition because at our AirBnB the mugs provided were only 6-8 ounce mugs.

��Kellie, Jordan, Preston - good souvenirs

��Isabelle - there was good stuff but it was overpriced

Wright Brothers National Memorial

There is supposed to be a fee to enter, however, it was slow, so we were able to get in for free! Here you will learn the history of the Wright Brothers and their first flight. There are great props to view. A bit of reading is required in the museum area. There is a runway so you can watch small planes take off. The memorial is built out on a huge hill. It is a lot of work to walk up the hill, but the way down isn't too bad. This doesn't take long. Maybe an hour because of the walking between the museum and the memorial. Pro tip: after the museum pull the car up to the foot of the memorial where there is parking. Save yourself a walk back.

��Kellie, Isabelle, Preston - fun, cool history, fun to run down the hill

��Jordan

Happy 5 Year Anniversary - BEE Yourself

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 16:19:00 GMT

Before I get started, I want to take a moment to send a thank you to our fans who love watching our channel and have enjoyed watching us grow over the last 5 years! If you haven't seen the video yet, check out the link below.

https://youtu.be/gOlI-yrWHQU

5 years is a long time. This adventure has been incredible. We started out in 2020. When we started out Preston was 5, Isabelle was 6 and Jordan was 7. It started as a fun activity and a workout from home. People loved our journey and our family dynamic, and they have tuned in daily to watch us. This has led us to over 17M subscribers on YouTube. Because of our fans, we have had such a great opportunity to spend more time as a family. We have experienced so many more moments together then we did when I had to go to an office to work 40 plus hours a week. We have cherished every moment we have been given together. We cannot thank our fans enough for giving us this time together.

Kellie always has a vision. She is really good at theming and finding props to fit the theme. She began ordering the supplies a few weeks ago for our big celebration. The theme is Bee Yourself. Her plan is to turn our house into a garden filled with bees. As a sidenote, I don't like bees. Maybe that isn't harsh enough. I hate bees. Amazon boxes start showing up for days. They are filled with yellow balloons, bumblebee balloons, flower balloons, yellow floating lanterns, and flower chains with sunflowers. She also has found a Pinata, Pinata toys, fly swatters, and chalk bombs.

The Day I was Attacked by Bees

It was a normal day when it all started. I arrived home from the store where I was picking up some groceries. As I pulled up the driveway I was greeted by a panicked Isabelle. "Daddy, I got stung by a bee in the house." I responded with "AAAAHHHH!" My worst fears are coming true. Bees in the house. This is not cool. I'm not going in there.

Let me take you on a side quest that happened the day before. PSEG our local gas and electric supplier is trying to have customers change over their old equipment. Originally proposed as a "free upgrade". Obviously, it's really expensive and not free but here we are. There was a gentleman here doing a full house assessment on the lovely price we would get to pay for the changeover. Anway, he was in the attic, and he shared pictures with me that there were wasp's nests up there. He couldn't say if they were active nests or not, but I knew. They were definitely up there plotting an attack on me.

Back to Isabelle telling me she was stung. I'm tre mbling. Am I going to walk into this house and be attacked by killer bees. I don't know. All I know is one of them tried to take her out and I could be next. I cautiously open the door and what do I see! There were about a dozen bees flying around in the entryway! And these weren't typical bees. They were easily 50x larger than a normal bee so I did what any self-respecting adult would do. I screamed my face off and ran around in circles. It turns out they were just balloons. The girls picked up a helium tank and pranked me. Very funny. But just remember, real bees are not funny.

Why do Party Games Hurt?

I was minding my own business hanging out in my banana outfit when Kellie captured me and tied me up on a chair in the front lawn. When things like this happen, I am genuinely afraid. "Can I please just have sunglasses?" You never know when something might hit you in the face. It turns out she had this incredible idea to have a chalk bomb fight, and the winner was the person that left the most marks on me. Let me tell you something. When people whack you with the chalk bomb or pelt you with a chalk bomb instead of tossing it at you. It hurts! Did it feel like rocks you ask? Did I have a couple of welts? It sure did feel like rocks and yep, a few welts to go with it. As the chalk bombs were raining down on me, I saw my opportunity to struggle until the chair fell over. I popped out of my chair and ran around the yard. But they were able to catch me and continuously pelt me with the chalk bombs as I lay there with tears streaming out of my eyes. Winner? Certainly not me. Apparently, Jordan covered me in the most chalk.

It gets better. Ready for another fun game to start? Next, Kellie tied balloons all over me. There were almost 30 balloons. The kid that pops the most balloons wins. How are they going to pop these balloons you wonder? It turns out they have fly swatters that have pins on them. The object is to whack at the balloons attached to me with a pin. Great! These kids either have really bad aim or they just wanted to hit me with the fly swatter. Again, I am in the front yard running for my life. The kids capture me and toss me to the ground. They both start slamming the fly swatter into me and the remaining balloons. Isabelle won with 15 balloons popped. Jordan had 12. Which means Jordan probably hit me more times than Isabelle did.

I'm glad game time is over. Wait its not ove r. There is a pinata. Like a normal family we can hang this thing up right? Nope! I am holding it by hand with the tiny little handle on the top while to kids storm me with their weapon of choice. Did they use a bat? No. They used a baby doll. Hard plastic baby doll. Perfect for holding the feet while you swing that baby's big head at my hands. Fearful I'm going to break a finger or two, I pull the pinata up and out of harm's way. Well guess what, their eyes swelled with rage and that made me a bigger target. The swinging got more intense. Their screams got louder. My fear grew. Luckily Isabelle raged out on the pinata and destroyed it before any harm could be done to me.

Circus Time

Do circus tricks really scare you? I get this question a lot. Witnessing something live is a lot different than seeing something on video. Think of how crazy some things have looked when you are watching them. Now add in more of your senses. We can start with sound that isn't present in the videos. You can hear the apparatus creaking before a drop occurs. You can hear the metal-on-metal crack as a drop is complete. Next, sight. You can see the participant almost touch the mat and the angle is way scarier than in the video. Smell. We can skip smell that's usually me because I'm scared.

The children are determined to scare me with their drops today. So, they take turns. Preston does a star drop. Jordan does a double 360. Isabelle does a Death Roll. Kellie does a Front Dive to a Star. Oh, and guess what? I have to do a drop to. So, I do my best backfall. My backfall is usually described as elegant, graceful and inspiring. The footage shared may not have illustrated the excellence of my drop.

More Scares

Earlier in the day I was peacefully drinking my water when Isabelle dropped down the silks soaking me with my water bottle. Then my family has other plans to scare me. Because I lost one of my balloons in the house, Isabelle has to jump off the ledge to obtain it. Can't we just have cake like a normal party?

It turns out there is cake! Great! Let's eat the cake. Oh, we can't just eat the cake. Isabelle does a drop with the cake. She is able to successfully drop without destroying the cake. Excellent news! We get to eat some cake to celebrate!

Thank you for coming along on this journey of ours. Hopefully there are no more bees in future celebrations.

Little Mama's Perfect Day in Disney World

Fri, 11 Apr 2025 18:38:00 GMT

Little Mama's Perfect Day!

Today I'm waking up early at Polynesian. I need to make sure to get to Magic Kingdom to make my 8 AM reservation for The Crystal Palace breakfast. The Crystal Palace is my favorite restaurant in all of Disney World because you get to hang out with Eeyore and his friends Tigger, Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. It's an all you can eat buffet to, with an ice cream dispenser! It's never too early for treats you know. While we're at breakfast the Friendship Day Parade comes around a couple of times and Eeyore stops to say hi to me 5 times!

After hanging out with Eeyore and friends we stroll down Main Street to do some pin trading. I find a few great pins on cast member lanyards and pin boards. My favorite I got today is a Stitch pin! One of my favorite things to do at Disney is to trade pins under the Epcot ball but since I only have one day I have to sacrifice this activity to enjoy all my favorite rides.

I'm ready for my first ride so we head over to Tiana's Bayou. Daddy got us fast passes today. The weather is perfect. Not too hot. But still refreshing to go on a water ride. This is one of my favorite rides, so I like to get on it early. And if you get wet, you will dry off pretty quickly. The trick to not getting too wet is to put Daddy and Jordan in the front row because they will shield you from most of the water.

We get off Tiana's Bayou and run over to Big Thunder Mountain. I love this rollercoaster! It's about 10AM and time to get to the other side of the park. Our first stop is Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Luckily, we have fast pass because the wait is already 60 Minutes. This is not the fastest rollercoaster but it's still a lot of fun. I love going through the mine and seeing all the dwarfs working. Theres a hidden Mickey in the mine made out of diamonds.

Next, we head to Tomorrowland to ride Tron. This is the fastest coaster in Magic Kingdom. The actual ride is quick but still a lot of fun. To finish off our rollercoaster tour we go to Space Mountain when we are done. This fully indoor rollercoaster can be scary.

It's around 1PM and I'm getting hungry, so we head over to Cosmic Rays for lunch. They have really good Chicken Fingers and fries. And you get to watch a show with lunch! It's a nice break from the rides and the hot weather. Now that lunch is over, I can grab my favorite treat in all of Disney. We head over to Sunshine Tree Terrace near Jungle Cruise to grab an Orange Dole Whip. If you haven't had one yet, you need to try it.

Since I was able to finish everything, I wanted to do in Magic Kingdom today we can head over to Hollywood Studios to meet up with our friends! After one more trip down Main Street to do some pin trading of course.

We arrive to Hollywood Studios around 3PM. We do some pin trading along Hollywood Blvd. Then it's time to do some rides. We start with Rock 'n' Rollercoaster. The beginning of this ride is so awesome. They launch you so fast and you go through a big loop!

After that rush I am ready for a scare, so we head over to Tower of Terror. Does this ride scare anyone else? There are some parts that are really creepy. But I enjoy the drops. One day I hope they change this ride to the Guardians of the Galaxy Tower like in Disneyland. That ride is amazing.

We are making great time as we head over to Toy Story Land. Slinky Dog usually has a super long wait. It is a good rollercoaster if you can get on quickly, which we can do today since we have fast pass! I love when Slinky slows down and then rockets you off again. After we are finished here, we can play a round of Toy Story Mania. I am getting so much better at this one.

It is a quick walk to Star Wars Land where we are able to ride Rise of the Resistance. I love the trackless technology. Since this is the perfect day, the ride is fully operational, so we get to see Kylo Ren at the end. No more weird screen ending. Today we skip Smugglers Run. It's really only fun if you are the pilot.

We have time for one last ride, so we head over to Mickey's Runaway Railway. I love this ride! Each room on the ride is super cool. My favorite part is when Daisy teaches us to dance!

We finish our night by grabbing a bite to eat at Sci-Fi. This is one of my favorite restaurants. It is an old-fashioned drive-in movie theme. Your table is a car, and you watch old clips of movies and shows. They have incredible ice cream sundae here!

I'm worn out so it's time to head back to the Polynesian. Wouldn't you know they serve Pineapple Dole Whip at the Polynesian, so I eat my dessert here. We are back to the resort in time to watch the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom over the water.

The Pee Pee Bandit – Disney World Should be Ashamed

Sun, 06 Apr 2025 16:05:00 GMT

Florida schools were out for a teacher service day on Friday! Yay! We could get a three-day weekend at Disney if we hurried. It was a cold, mid-January weekend. In January, that also means it is a Marathon Weekend, ugh. Marathons bring in a lot of people. With a lot of people in the area there are less rooms, the parks are filled (kid activities are overrun by adults), and it’s hard to get food. We have a dog so there are only 4 Disney hotel options available: Art of Animation, Port Orleans Riverside, Yacht Club, and Camp Wilderness. We frequently stay at Port Orleans Riverside because it has a decent combination of price to amenities. They charge you $50 per night for a pet, which is about the same or slightly more than a kennel. The positive thing is your dog gets to be with you and doesn’t have to be caged up all day.

We arrived shortly after check-in around 4PM. We were placed in Alligator Bayou for the first time. The Alligator Bayou is a nice area, but the parking lots are far from the rooms. We entered the room, two queen beds and a 5th sleeper. Perfect for a family of 5. Staying 3 nights, each kid gets to enjoy the comfort of the 5th sleeper for one night. Preston gets to go first. I was the last one to enter the room because I was struggling getting those heavy suitcases up the stairs to the second floor. I didn’t notice an elevator on my journey, but it may have been on the other side of the building.

When I arrived at the room the kids were already spreading out and sitting on the beds. Kellie took down the extra blankets and placed them on the 5th sleeper to give Preston extra blankets. It was surprisingly cold in Florida so those extra sheets and blankets would really help.

I left the room to gather more belongings from the car. I huffed and puffed out of breath as I opened the door to the room, a weird smell smacked me in the nose. The initial smell quickly seemed to dissipate upon combination with the fresh air outside. I didn’t remember this smell from my first time in the room.

I entered the room, and the kids screamed “Daddy, you have to smell this!”

I asked, “what is it?”

They responded, “someone peed the bed.”

Wait! Why would I want to put my face in that like it needed extra investigating. Isabelle pulled back the blankets and POW there the smell was again. ��Oof, all of the sheets covering it must have incubated it so it could stick around longer, it smelled awful. I exited the room for fresh air. I walked back in. Yep, undeniable that someone or their dog pissed on the bed and didn’t have the courtesy to ask to have it cleaned.

Could you imagine laying your head down for bed right on someone else’s piss? We couldn’t so Kellie called the front desk and housekeeping.

Their response included a lack of empathy and an overall disinterest in helping with the situation. It appeared to be shift change over time. “Sorry to hear you have an issue with the room, we will look into this” was their response. Umm, how long will it take to bring a new mattress? They weren’t sure and would give us a call. As the urine was exposed to the air, it seemed to create a chemical reaction and allowed the odor to continue to fill the room. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I tossed the little mattress and sheets out of the room. Since we were heading to Epcot, we had to leave Bunny in her cage in case someone entered the room to fix the situation.

Finally, I received a message from the hotel around 5:45PM. “Hello this is Hershey calling with Riverside back office. I’m just giving you a call as Housekeeping did make us aware that you may be having issues with your 5th sleeper. We’re looking at different options so if you could either give us a call or stop by the front desk, we will be able to assist. Thank you and have a magical stay.”

I called back and was able to talk to Hershey. I reinforced the situation that someone has left pee on the bed, and we would like a new mattress. Paraphrase of our conversation below. I elaborated that someone left pee on the bed and the stench was terrible quite a few times.

“Sorry, we don’t have any more mattresses. Here is the option we have. We can switch you to a Princess themed room at no additional cost.”

“Ok, what is the benefit of the princess themed room. Does it have a 5th sleeper. Also, we won’t be back from Epcot until 10PM. That is late to move all our bags.”

“The benefit is it is princess themed. And no, it does not have a 5th sleeper.”

“We would like the 5th sleeper.”

“Ok the other option is you stay there tonight, and we can switch rooms tomorrow.”

“That doesn’t work for us and that seems unfair. Is there anywhere with a 5th sleeper.”

“We can call other hotels for you.”

“We don’t want to move hotels. We have a dog registered with your hotel through your app at check-in. We are paying an extra $50 per night to stay here. And most of the other Disney hotels don’t allow dogs.”

“Ok. Let me look at something. Can you hold on.”

…………………….

“Here’s another option. You can move from building 28 to building 35. It has a 5th sleeper.”

“We are at Epcot and we will not be back until around 10PM.”

“Ok, so you don’t want to move? You can move in the morning.”

“That doesn’t solve the problem for tonight.”

Hershey did not have critical thinking or problem-solving skills. Why didn’t she just move the mattress from building 35 to building 28. That seemed like the easiest solution. Then they would have all night to clean up the urine saturated mattress.

Fifteen minutes later I received a message from Hershey. “Giving you a call back to let you know that I talked to housekeeping, and they should be able to help you tomorrow. By the way we don’t have a paper on file for your furry friend, so you must come to the front desk.” I kid you not. They can’t solve a problem where urine is saturated on a mattress, but they still expect you to come to the front desk to sign a piece of paper since you have a dog. The dog’s already registered on the app and they are charging me $50 per day.

Kellie was just like “ok, I’ll go sign the paper.”

I was fuming. “That’s bullshit! No. Why should we have to do that when they can’t even help us solve this issue.”

Kellie responded, “they asked us to, so I will take care of it.”

We arrived back at the hotel room at 10PM and low and behold the mattress was still on the porch. No success. We tried one more time to call the front desk and the lady on the phone appeared very concerned. She couldn’t believe that nobody was able to help us. Guess what? She couldn’t either! What a disappointment.

Kellie said, “ok, I’m going to head to the front desk to sign the paper for Bunny.”

I responded, “no way!”

Kellie headed to the front desk, signed the piece of paper. Told the lady at the front desk the issue we were having. At 11:30PM they finally sent housekeeping to the room to change the sheets on the mattress.

A few days later I received an email asking for feedback on my experience. I wrote in the comments a summary of the piss on the bed and the lack of help we were able to receive from the hotel.

Ultimately, nobody at Disney is going to care about my comment or feedback. There isn’t anything Disney can do at this point to make the situation right. I doubt there is any training or improvement that could be made. It’s not a case study for a bigger problem. It seems like a one-off incident. Unless there is a housekeeper going around peeing on beds before guests show up. But it was poorly handled and shows a clear lack of empathy and problem-solving skills among several departments. I would not be happy to be a leader in an organization that handles a situation in the way this one was handled.

Have you had a bad experience at a hotel? Comment below.

Which Disney Restaurant is Your Favorite?

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 16:42:00 GMT

Are you taking a trip to Disney soon? Do you have a Disney Dining Plan? Are you trying to figure out what restaurants to eat at? Here are some of our favorite restaurants at Walt Disney World!

Isabelle – Crystal Palace

My favorite restaurant is Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom. I love this restaurant because you get to meet Eeyore. He is my favorite Disney character of all time. Whenever, the fireworks go off Piglet holds his ears because he is scared. The food is a buffet so you can have as much ice cream as you want. The Mac and Cheese is great. Eeyore is there and he is the best. It feels like you get to spend as much time as you want with the characters if you go at the end of the night.

Jordan – Tigger is awesome. You get to bounce up and down with him. Piglet is c ute. Fireworks scare him though, so he puts his ears down. Their mac and cheese and chicken nuggets are delicious.

Preston – I really enjoy the Friendship Day Parade. You get to get up out of your seat and choose your own food. You get to meet the characters. Piglet is my favorite character there. He is funny but he gets scared during the fireworks. I love Tigger because he plays with you. He jumps up and down with you. He can jump high.

Blayne – Just like all the other character dining experiences, this one is quite pricey as well. The big difference for this one is that it includes one of my children’s absolute favorite Disney characters of all time and the whole Winnie the Pooh gang give us a great experience. It always makes Isabelle on top of the world to go here. The food is really good to. They have a Country Fried Chicken with Black Pepper Gravy on top that is incredible. If you like seafood they have Cocktail Shrimp, Shrimp Creole and Salmon that are all delicious. They have steaks and pork sliced in front of you. If you are an adult this is one of the places in Magic Kingdom you can enjoy adult beverages. You can do all of this at the end of the night while the crowds are leaving the park. Then you have a more private dining experience and a shorter line at the exit.

Kellie – This is one of my favorites. You can’t meet Eeyore basically anywhere else. The buffet is really good. The kids love it. They get to make their own ice cream. I love how it's in Magic Kingdom. We enjoy it at the end of the day. There are less babies and toddlers so it’s quieter. You can watch the fireworks from here. Although it scares Piglet to death. It’s a great experience.

Kellie – Cinderella’s Royal Table

My favorite restaurant is Cinderella’s Royal Table in the Magic Kingdom Castle. This is my favorite because the castle is iconic. There is nowhere else like the castle. It is literally a historic structure, that Walt Disney designed, and you get to be in it. You can see FantasyLand from here. It is super expensive and hard to get a table but there is nothing that compares to it. Maybe the other castles at other Disney’s. The Filet Mignon was delicious. You get to talk to all the princesses. I enjoyed Merida the best.

Isabelle – I think it was good. But it could have been so much better. The dessert was included with your food, but the dessert wasn’t good. They could improve here. I think I had chicken fingers for dinner. The view was nice. If you were doing it with fireworks, it would have been awesome. It’s very dingy though so that makes it hard to film. The princesses were really nice and they spent a lot of time with you.

Jordan – I like Cinderella’s Royal Table. The meal though was not the best. I could have used a cheeseburger. It had a great chocolate dessert. The apples were good. The princesses were fun and the scenery was amazing. It was a good view and would have been an awesome place for fireworks.

Blayne – For the high price, it should be a great experience, but it's not going to be for everyone. There are only maybe 5 window seats. At least half the seats don’t face a window. Mine faced a wall so that was awesome. When I walked over to the window to take a quick peek people looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe because there are people eating at the tables in front of the windows. Then the princesses perform a ceremony. Guess what. Not all the seats face the ceremony. You pay your seat in advance. Gratuity is added before you show up which isn’t the worst so you don’t have to pay while there but it made it so the service was slow because they don’t care as much as a server working for their pay. Most of the princesses felt like they moved quickly. Merida was awesome though. My meal was good.

Preston - Ohana

My favorite restaurant is Ohana at Polynesian. I love Ohana because they have a parade with Stitch, Lilo, Mickey and Pluto. They walk around to all the tables, and you get to meet them. They make Mickey and Stitch shaped waffles. They are so good. They give you some kind of juice in the morning and it tastes delicious.

Jordan – Their pineapple mango juice is incredible. I love meeting Stitch. He is so funny. The waffles and sausage are incredible.

Blayne – Ohana is a great family style breakfast restaurant. It feels rushed. The characters come around slowly, and they leave quickly. Sometimes you need to have your server talk to the characters for you well after your meal is over to meet them. The price tag to eat here is high because of the characters. They charge kids 10 and older adult prices. Not all 10-year-olds eat the same amount as adults. But you do get some of the value back because you are meeting these characters. The wait times at the parks would be crazy to meet them. The restaurant is in the Polynesian Hotel so if you drive, you can park there for the day and take the monorail to Magic Kingdom. That saves you a lot of time with the long journey of the Magic Kingdom entrance.

Kellie – I love Ohana breakfast. I think it’s totally worth the price. Meeting Lilo and Stitch is really special. You get a great view of Polynesian and Magic Kingdom. It’s family style, unlimited. The staff is friendly. It’s easy to hop on the monorail and go to Magic Kingdom.

Isabelle – I love Ohana. You get to meet Stitch and Lilo. Stitch is super cute. They give you a really good pineapple bread. It is delicious. They give you this incredible juice. It is so good I drank everyone’s and I got refills. The food overall is really good. If you are lucky enough to be by a window you get a great view. It’s a little bit dingy but that’s ok. If you eat there for dinner there are dumplings but no Lilo and Stitch!

Blayne – Cape May Cafe

My favorite restaurant is the Cape May Cafe at the Beach Club Resort. This is for breakfast specifically. The characters are themed well for Minnie’s Beach Bash Breakfast. You get to have breakfast with Minnie Mouse, Daisy, Goofy and Donald. I feel like the characters here always take extra time to hang out with you and they circle back a lot. We have taken the kids since they were babies, and it never disappoints. It is a buffet experience so that has led to a lot of endless bacon breakfasts.

Isabelle – This is a great restaurant. There is an omelet bar and you can add all sorts of toppings. There is a wide variety of food at the buffet. You get to meet fun characters. It’s really good to go to before the parks or if there is a day you aren’t going to a park. It’s really close to Epcot.

Jordan – I love Cape May Cafe. It is a buffet so you can just keep shoving your face with food. It is unlimited so you can have anything you want and all of it. Donald Duck is super cool so that was fun to meet him.

Preston – I like meeting Donald and Goofy! The food was really good too!

Kellie – My review of this restaurant is different now then it used to be. I really enjoyed it when the kids were younger. It was great when we had babies and toddlers. I don’t think it’s worth the price now. It’s very generic and chill but you spend all this money to meet characters, and you are not at a park. You will lose time in the parks. If you aren’t going to a park that day, it makes sense.

Jordan – Nine Dragons

My favorite restaurant is Nine Dragons in Epcot. The Crispy Honey Chicken with Fried Rice is amazing. The atmosphere is great. It’s awesome if you go at the end of the night. You get to relax inside and watch the fireworks. It isn’t loud and they play the nighttime show music in the restaurant. The service is fast and there aren’t usually a lot of people there.

Preston – They gave me my food on a plate with a mystery animal at the bottom. If you eat all your food, you get to see a panda. The food is good. You get a really good view of the fireworks show while eating here.

Isabelle – Eeeewww that’s hard. There are some good and bad memories. The food overall was good the first and second time I went. But the third time I went it was not good. They had these amazing dumplings, but they took them off the menu. They used to be so good but now the ingredients are different, and it tastes like it isn’t fully cooked now. If you sit next to the window there is a really good firework view. Late at night there is barely anyone there. The service is really good. They give you free refills on hot chocolate sometimes.

Blayne – The price has gone up a little at Nine Dragons, but it is still a good value. They have adjusted the presentation of the meals, so it appears you are getting less food, but it is just a fancier bowl. We make a reservation for 8:45PM to be one of the last tables sat. We request a window seat to watch the show. If we get too hungry before 8:45PM we can show up almost anytime and they seat us. If you have a child that doesn’t like loud noises and firework presentations, then this might be a good restaurant for you to watch the show from. Of course, the view is not as good as standing by the water, but you will usually see enough to make you happy. Especially if your child normally can’t handle these loud events.

Kellie – I love Nine Dragons. The food and service are good. The prices are reasonable. Then at the end of the day you get to watch the fireworks. It’s a good end of the day dinner.

Leave a comment for your favorite Disney restaurant!

Fortnite OG Season 3 - First Impression

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 15:35:00 GMT

Fortnite OG Season 3 was released 3/25/25. Below are my reactions to the updates and my review after I played.

50 vs 50!

Initial Impression - Are you kidding two squads of 50! That is going to be insane. I am really excited to try this set up. With a battlefield so big how will it work. I first saw this on Fortnite’s X post. This is only available for a limited time and ends on April 14. Apparently, this hasn’t been available since 2017!

Reaction after playing – They should have left this game in the vault. It’s terrible. There are two battle buses and a giant boarder across the middle of the field, so you know generally where your teammates are going to land. The final storm area is shown early so you are working your way to it the whole time. OG Season 3 doesn’t have cars so if you land too far away from the little battlefield everyone is going to be on there is no action. Then you finally make it to the action, and it isn’t fun. If you aren’t an expert builder, don’t bother. Sure, I got a couple of Victory Royale’s but with little involvement who cares. Then when all the structures are built you assume you can use them to your advantage. Nope, there are guided rockets people can shoot from far away and circle around until they can find you hiding. Overall, it was a waste of an hour.

You are on a team of 50 but you have a squad of up to 5. Those 5 players are the only ones that can reboot each other. In one of my games, it spawned me with no one in my squad, so there is no chance of rebooting. I had to be extra careful. Then when you have your teammates reboot cards there is only one reboot van safe from the storm and everyone is using it. You may think you are rebooting but someone on the other side of the van is actually rebooting their squad…which is your squad, but not your squad.

Lucky Landing

Initial Impression - Epic Games seemed excited to announce that the Lucky Landing POI is back. “This small town is a treasure trove of ornate architecture and abundant loot. Lucky Landing’s tight streets are perfect for up-close encounters — just don’t forget to take in the gorgeous cherry blossoms as you bask in the glow of victory!” – Epic Games at Fornite.com

Reaction after playing – It fits the description of a small town. Not much loot available though. It’s ok. It’s on the outskirts. Not worth the visit.

OG Pass

The pass costs 1,000 V-Bucks which is close to $10. I recently signed up for Fortnite Crew on one of my profiles so it will be included. In my first month of having Fortnite Crew, I have received 1 Lego pass and 1 OG pass valued at about $10 apiece. I have also been able to start a second Lego and OG Pass valued at about $10 apiece. Fortnite Crew costs $12 / month. It is an expensive feature; however, if Fortnite is one of your main games played I am seeing the benefits. Each pass you receive is worth about $10 plus you receive 1,000 V-Bucks a month to shop with. Cost for Fortnite Crew annually is about $144. You receive about $115 worth of V-Bucks and at least $120 worth of passes (this assumes only 4 seasons in all pass categories – Battle Pass, Lego Pass, OG Pass and Music Pass).

There are 3 skins available with variations – Power Punk and Blossom Power Punk, Mecha R3X and Armor Mecha R3X and Sir Raven and Storms End Sir Raven. I’m excited to add these to my collection.

Reaction after playing – 3 skins for 1,000 V-Bucks is a solid value in comparison to skins in the Shop. A typical skin is going to cost you about 1,500 V-Bucks. Granted the skin in the shop is going to be an awesome Licensed character like Deadpool or Wolverine. I like the skins in this pass adding to my happiness that I joined Fortnite Crew with one of my profiles.

Emotes in the OG Battle Pass are good – Punk Show and Bone Breaker.

Punk Show

Weapons

Initial Impression - Available at the start of the season are Guided Missiles, Hand Cannons, Port-A-Fort, and the Hunting Rifle. Not seeing overwhelming change here but it should be fun.

Coming this season include Remote Explosives, Heavy Shotgun, Light Machine Guns and Clingers. I’m most excited for the Clingers here. It gives me a good explosive shaped like a plunger.

Reaction after playing – The guided missiles are a pain. It’s a huge advantage for those that have it. And I have not had it. As I noted in my review of 50 v 50, if you can combine the guided missiles with great building skills your advantage is significant.

Other Areas to Cover

Cars – There are still no drivable cars. This makes travel extremely slow. They should add a couple vehicles in just to speed the game up.

Building – This is just a general thought. They need to nerf structure building. My player gets tired from running. My player runs out of bullets and has to reload. My car runs out of gas. If my player falls from a high height he loses health. These are realistic aspects of the game. Have you ever seen someone try to build a structure? Heck have you ever seen someone try to build a tv stand or dresser? It takes a long time. Not to mention there are inaccuracies and people must retrace their steps to see where they went wrong. I’m not saying building shouldn’t be in the game. I’m just saying there should be a cool down of 1 or 2 seconds after each piece of structure is built. You put up a wall it takes 1 second. You build steps 2 seconds. Make this part more realistic. I’ve seen people build 5 story structures in 2-3 seconds. That is not realistic at all.

Police Tycoon 2 – If you need a break from Battle Royale, check out Police Tycoon 2. On two of my profiles, I have been able to get high levels of XP just by using the hitboxes in the game. Not to mention completing tasks gives a high level of XP. On one of my profiles my XP return was not that good. Not sure what determines who can get good XP from a game and who can’t, but I have been having success with this one. The Hitboxes in the game generated high XP returns.

Final Thoughts – Fortnite OG Season 3 is off to a good start. I would not recommend 50 v 50. Play Solo or squads up to 4. Fortnite OG is a nice change up from the current Battle Royale. I don’t like that there still aren’t cars introduced in Fortnite OG or faster ways to get around the board.

Have you played? What do you think of the updates for OG Season 3?

Grab Those Tissues - It's Time to Discuss the Disney Movies we find the Saddest

Sun, 23 Mar 2025 14:22:00 GMT

Get the Tissue Box

Do you ever feel like every Disney movie has something traumatic happen in it? Grab a box of tissues because today we are going to share which Disney movies always get us choked up or full-on crying.

Kellie – Watching Them Lose Loved Ones is so Hard

My biggest cryfest was for Coco. We were on a family vacation with my in-laws, and no one saw it coming. I made it through most of the movie, but the ending crushed me. It was so sad that Miguel’s Grandmother died. That for me hit so hard. I was extremely close with my Mom Mom and the memories of when she passed away ended the night for me. I cried so much. Stories where characters lose a loved one are so hard, especially when you have lost the same loved one as the story.

Onward is another sad one. The younger brother, Ian, lost his father when he was a baby. His brother Barley basically raised him and guided him through life. Ian made a list of what he wants to do on his 16th birthday and one item is to get to be with him (referring to his dad). On his 16th birthday, due to a wizard spell, their dad comes back to life for 24 hours. However, there is an issue with the spell and all they get to see is their dad’s pants. They spend the whole 24 hours he comes back to life trying to bring their dad in his full form back. Ian has a revelation that Barley has taken care of him all of his life. Due to a cursed monster fighting them there is one minute at the end of the movie where the dad has his whole body and face. Only one person can spend some time talking with him before the sun sets because they are in a battle. Ian sacrifices his spot so Barley can say goodbye. This sucks. Why can’t they both say goodbye.

The McFive Circus visits Magic Kingdom.

Jordan – It's the Emotions for me

I really love Inside Out but this one is so sad. I get about halfway through the movie and I feel happy. Then it makes me feel really sad. Everything is going well with Riley until it isn’t, and her family can’t figure it out. They made her move to San Francisco. She lost her friends. She lost her hockey team. Then she gets so sad she runs away and gets on the scary bus. Riley is scared. Her parents are scared. I’m scared. Everyone’s scared. Then Riley eventually gets too scared and goes home to her parents. They finally realize why she is so sad. It’s sad because she couldn’t express her feelings and her parents didn’t realize what was going on. I think everyone goes through stuff like that.

And let’s not even discuss Bing Bong sacrificing himself for Riley. I am crying just thinking about Bing Bong. “Who’s your friend who likes to play? Bing Bong, Bing Bong! His rocket makes you yell Hooray! Bing Bong, Bing Bong!”

Jordan and Isabelle with Stitch and Angel

Isabelle – They Wouldn't Let Him be Himself

I was between Coco and Soul. Coco was so sad because all Miguel wants to do is play his favorite music and his family completely doesn’t agree. They get so mad at him and will not let him play music. He then goes to the land of the dead and his dead ancestors are mad at him to for wanting to play music. It’s sad because they won’t just let Miguel be himself and they try to control him. Most people can probably relate to a time when someone wouldn’t let them do what they want.

Disney's Epcot Ball at Night

Preston - He Never Met his Mom

Finding Nemo was very sad at the beginning. It was sad because all the baby fish get eaten and the mom dies to. Nemo has to live without ever meeting his mom. He never got to have brothers or sisters either. They were all murdered by a big fish. Then Nemo has a small fin and he has trouble swimming with it.

The kids of The McFive Circus pose in front of Cinderella's Castle in Magic Kingdom

Blayne - This is the Saddest Intro to a Movie Ever

This was a close one for me between Up and Toy Story 4 but I have to go with Up. This has to include one of the saddest opening scenes I can remember, ever. Without saying a word, it takes you through the ups and downs, happiness and sadness, success and struggles of life.

Carl and Ellie meet as kids and their lifelong journey together starts. As kids, they plan an amazing, fun life together with their biggest dream of visiting Paradise Falls together. In their young adulthood they are so full of energy. They are on top of the world. They fall in love and have a beautiful wedding. They finally feel financially free and ready to have a baby. Just to find out that due to complications they are not able to procreate a baby. Depression ensues in Ellie. Finally, Carl cheers Ellie up with memories from the past and their biggest dream of all; Paradise Falls. With renewed passion, their future is bright once again. But due to the setbacks of life they are never able to fulfil the biggest dream they created together. Eventually Ellie gets sick and dies. Carl is all alone without the love of his life. Why Disney? Why?

This opening scene was such a rollercoaster of emotions. You can empathize every single step of the way.

Leave a comment below to let us know which Disney movie is the saddest for you.

Hollywood Studios After-Hours Event: Not Worth the Price of Admission

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 14:22:00 GMT

What is the After-Hours Event?

Have you ever wanted to hang out at Hollywood Studios long after the regular crowds have gone home? That’s what the Hollywood Studios After Hours Event offers. With so much to offer from Disney, is this event worth the price of admission?

The advertisement on this event notes, “On select nights and as the seasons change, new experiences come to life across the parks—marvel at magical decorations , discover world-class theatrical entertainment and enjoy special goodies .” Let’s break this statement down.

Starting with magical decorations, there are lights at night, but I feel like those are there anyway.

There was no additional theatrical entertainment items offered. All stage shows were closed. Unless they are considering Fantasmic at 9:30PM which is open to the public.

Special goodies sound amazing. There were just three items they sell during the day at the park. They didn’t even have a full assortment. Nothing new here.

For your money you are getting shorter wait times, a few character meet and greets and light snacks (ice cream, popcorn, soda).

Photo of Guitar outside Rock 'n' Rollercoaster at After-Hours Event

The Bad!

The more times I proofread this the more I vote do not go to this event if you are an Annual Passholder.

For Annual Passholders you may feel a bit slighted with this event. The best analogy I can make if you are an Annual Passholder is to that of a loyal employee to a company. Have you been at your job for multiple years? Have you done a great job? Do you know you’ve done a great job because you received your annual performance review telling you how great you are just to receive your annual 2-3% performance increase, which doesn’t keep up with annual cost-of-living increases? Have you watched someone recently get hired and paid the same or more than you because they are a new higher and the starting rate for the position has changed? It’s like that. I’ll break it down for you below.

Annual Passholders receive $10 off admission. That’s right, a whopping $10. Admission when we attended the event was $180 per person before discount. If you did not already have a park ticket for the day, then the event ticket for $180 includes admission to the park. A one-day full park ticket will normally cost you about $179 in March. So, for an extra $1 this event ticket allows you to enter the park as early as 7PM. Need a visual? Check it out below.

March 2025 One Day Park Ticket

Pricing per park

With early event tickets entering the park at 7PM and daily travelers staying until the park closes at 9PM, the park is a wall-to-wall mess leading up to the event and into the first 30 minutes to hour of the event. Then you add Fantasmic showings at 8PM and 9:30PM. Holy cow the couple of hours leading up to the event are wild. Imagine a nonstop flood of people pouring out of that first Fantasmic showing around 8:40PM and run to their final ride before the park closes at 9PM. All ride times shoot up to about 45-60 Minute waits.

Rides break. And they break often. We stood in multiple lines during our 3-hour extended time waiting for rides to work. Early in the night we missed out on Toy Story Mania because it too was not working. These things happen but when you are paying a lot of extra money you expect things to run seamlessly.

Do you want to hear about our saddest broken ride? Let me set the scene for you.

You exit Tower of Terror at 12:10PM, the event ends in 20 minutes. You can choose one last ride. Our party is split between Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster, and Mickey’s Runaway Railway. The majority voted for Mickey’s Runaway Railway. We speed walk to the line just in case. We made it to Mickey’s Runaway Railway around 12:15AM. Plenty of time early to enjoy our last ride. The kids were pumped. We waited about 5-10 minutes for the theatrical showing room to open its doors. We piled in to the room with about 25 other excited park guests. We watched the preshow. Goofy invites everyone to walk through the broken wall and join him on the railway. In the background, Mickey starts singing “Nothing can stop us now”. The excitement is building! I look around as we enter the queue, and people are sitting on the ground. And with that a park employee gets on the loudspeaker, “Hello, Mickey’s Runaway Railway is broken and closed for the night”. The park employees offered no recommendation or suggestion of empathy that you just lost out on your last ride of the night after paying a ton of money. We exited the ride at 12:29AM. There was literally nowhere we could make it to in that short of a time.

I’m not sure a solution for broken rides but here’s a quick breakdown of the financial impact. We paid $180 for 3 hours. That is $1 per minute of the event. Losing out on two rides equates to somewhere between 30-60 minutes lost due to broken rides. For a party of 5 that is $150-300 lost!

Everyone’s situation is different. Is this your last day? Are you returning to Hollywood Studios? Do the other parks have comparable rides? Should you get your money back? Maybe when a ride breaks at an After-Hours event the workers on scene need to provide the guest with a voucher like a fast pass ticket. You can redeem it the next day for one ride, or you can call a number to receive a $15 refund. Someone get me Disney on the phone for this one. I’m sure it’s a large-scale problem for people.

The Good

All you can eat Mickey Ice Cream Sandwiches, Mickey Ice Cream on a stick and popcorn. All you can drink soda and water. I tried to get the kids to eat 25 ice cream bars to cover some of the price of admission, but they could only eat two.

There were characters you don’t typically see at the park. We took pictures with a few including Geppetto, Jiminy Cricket and the White Rabbit. You had the opportunity to meet Thumper, Bo Peep, Mary Poppins, Chip ‘n’ Dale, Goofy or Donald, Mickey or Minnie. The most amount of people I saw waiting to meet a character was about 5 groups. That’s an extremely low wait time to meet characters. Some character wait times throughout a normal day of operations can be well over an hour. If you have some of these obscure characters on your bucket list then there is value there.

Ride wait times were great once the theme park crowds died down. Each ride was about 15-30 minutes except for Alien Swirling Saucers which was a walk on. We didn’t get to ride Mickey’s Runaway Railway or Toy Story Mania due to the rides being broken but we were able to go on Slinky Dog Dash, Rise of the Resistance, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, and Alien Swirling Saucers.

Was it worth it to ride 5 rides? During normal park operations, Disney offers a Lightning Lane Multi Pass that allows you to go on 3 rides in a day. That is $32 per person. So $64 to ride 6 rides and you can choose a better ride then Alien Swirling Saucers. Disney also now offers a Premier Pass where you get one lighting lane to each ride at a park in a day. At Hollywood studios this is about $339 per person. I would say the benefit of choosing Lightning Lane over the After-Hours Event is that if a ride in your Lightning Lane breaks you can go to a Guest Experience tent or Guest Services to have the issue resolved. You don’t have any such assistance during the After-Hours Event. I would prefer to pay for the Lightning Lane before considering another After-Hours Event.

Conclusion

If you are a season passholder I would suggest you save your money and skip this event. Theres a lot of fun and great memories to be made with your family, but you could find cheaper ways to have similar experiences. In the end you may feel like you are getting slighted for being an Annual Passholder. I would opt for the Lighting Lane Multi Pass and choose your 3 favorite rides.

If your family only attends the parks once a year or every few years, I would consider attending this event to take full advantage of the lower capacity in the park.

The kids had a blast and want to go again. Note: they are not the ones paying.

One thing is certain to me. To make sure the event is equitable and fair to all park guests, Disney is going to need to figure out how to balance the benefits of Annual Passholders, people who already have tickets and people who do not have tickets.

Have you been to one of the After-Hours Events? Let me know about it in the comments below!

Who’s Afraid of The Great Wolf Lodge – Day 2

Sat, 01 Mar 2025 14:43:00 GMT

Feel free to skip to the bottom for final reviews from Jordan, Little Mama and me.

Ah Day 2, waking up refreshed from our long commute and first day. We needed to run to Walmart to pick up some supplies including Half and Half since the Resort Fees that cover Coffee, and the Maker are poor at best. Holy Ice Cubes! It is freezing! It is 30 degrees or less outside.

Walmart was a quick trip. We debated many locations for breakfast, but we opted to go back to The Great Wolf Lodge to grab Dunkin Donuts. It couldn’t have been much past 10AM. The only options to order are by kiosk or app. Incredibly they only have 4 total donut types to offer and no munchkins. There was no seating area for the Dunkin, so we had to bring it back to the room. Hugely disappointing but we all settled for chocolate on chocolate. The glazed donut sounded delicious as well but those disappear so fast, and one won’t fill you up in the slightest. You need like 3 to begin feeling full.

We planned to go to the Waterpark as early as possible and to spend the majority of the day there. As excited as we were to go to the water park, we wanted to get some filming in for a hotel review. We made plans to review MagiQuest, do some treat tasting and then head to the waterpark.

MagiQuest – saved by enthusiastic employees and Bard Rock

The daytime crew at the MagiQuest Store was way more enthusiastic than the nighttime crew. The store is small, so when you are the only one in there it can be awkward. I asked the same questions as the night before about the powers of the wands and the mods. Justice was way more helpful about the wands and background of the game. She explained MagiQuest is a 4-6 hour commitment. But if you are unable to complete the quest during your current stay, your progress is saved, and you can pick it up on your next vacation.

What is this catchy music you are playing in this store? It really makes me feel like I am in a forbidden forest. Justice was really excited at this point. “They told me I can play any music I like as long as it fits the theme. I found this musical type called Bardcore Rock. The song playing now is All-Star.” She then turned on Hips Don’t Lie. You need to look this stuff up for real. I couldn’t believe how magical and medieval it felt in the store, lol. It sounded like I was in the movie Brave and Merida was racing through the forest. I kid you not, this genre of music is going on my Spotify playlist.

Check out these wands and mods that the girls chose

For the quest you get to pick your Wizard name. They maintain a daily, weekly, monthly and all-time leaderboard. After a good amount of questing, we returned to the MagiQuest Store to see how we stacked up against the other kids in the hotel that day. Corey shared the results with us. As he scrolled, I noticed one name that kept popping up whether daily, weekly, monthly, all time “Applesauce Man”.

I’m naturally curious so I inquired of Corey about this Applesauce Man. Corey informed me that there are people that come to the hotel every day just to play MagiQuest. They must come every day to maintain their presence at the top of the all-time leaderboard. Interesting. My follow up question was if they were a social media channel or if there was a reward for being the top Quester. To my surprise, there was absolutely no prize, recognition or YouTube channel to watch. It’s all for the glory of having your Wizard name seen.

I described a man I saw throughout the hallways to Corey and sure enough, he matched the description of Applesauce Man. I said he really knows what he is doing because he avoids the super-duper excruciatingly slow elevators and uses the stairs between floors. Corey let me in on another secret. Rumors abound in the Magical Forest that if you take the elevators then other people (kid’s) on a MagiQuest can steal your gold! Is this true? It doesn’t sound that way, but that didn’t stop us from pretending like we were taking other people’s gold in the elevators to make sure the rumor would stay alive.

Hungry as a Wolf Pizza

For dinner the second night we tried their Hungry as a Wolf pizza shop. As with Dunkin Donuts, there are no seats so you must eat in your room. The pizza tasted like a large Little Caesars pizza. It was a delicious thick crust pizza that was good yet very greasy. We also tried their chicken alfredo pasta. It was solid with penne pasta and chunks of chicken baked with cheese over top. The kids loved the pasta, and it did not last long. The price worked out to be the same as the restaurant. Your little bit of savings is that there is no tip required since you aren’t eating in a restaurant. One night of this food was plenty for me.

It doesn't look great looking at these pictures lol, but it was delicious.

Waterpark – small but good enough. Needs a hot tub.

The water park was small. Way smaller than I expected. I didn’t check it out ahead of time. I just assumed it would be large. There were only a handful of water slides to go on. There were a couple of single / double tube rides, a couple of family tube rides, a set of racing slides, and a series of tiny body slides on Fort Mackenzie. There were some non-slide options as well with the wave pool, a basketball pool and a lily pad run.

Do you know what was missing and how they could improve the water park experience as a whole? Add a couple of hot tubs for the adults. Most parents are just sitting in their chairs or watching from the edge of the water. Imagine a heated, swim up bar tucked away in the corner. Maybe turn on sports. That would make some good revenue.

Our favorite slide was the Howlin’ Tornado. This is a six-story funnel slide. They tell you to hold on to both straps. This is the first time on a slide that I felt like I needed to. This was partially due to our tube not being fully inflated, so my side was really weighed down. Yep. I almost cracked my head and fell out. Saved by the straps. At the bottom I was the one who hit the water backwards. The kids screamed out and laughed with joy as I sunk our tube down into the approximately 6 inches of water and lifted up their side in to the air.

The kids loved racing across the lily pads. The main complaint I would make about the lily pads is that the ropes above them are too low. They are obviously low for the smaller children but that makes it harder for the bigger children. I would prefer to see two different heights for the ropes. Make it more fun for kids of all ages.

Candy Wall

There’s a candy wall in the shop. They advertise as if it’s a big draw. However, the wall is quite small. There was a sign in the hallway for souvenir candy buckets. The signs looked big with the enlargement feature. The actual buckets were quite tiny. The bucket we bought was really cool, but it was over $20. The amount of candy you could fit in it was minimal.

We love to make videos where we eat a bunch of treats offered at locations. The candy wall was weak. It was mostly filled with jellybeans but there were skittles, sour patch kids, Mike and Ike’s and other gummies.

Luckily, they had an ice cream shop downstairs, and we were able to grab cups of Dippin Dots. These were actually good value around $5 apiece.

Our review of the treats will be on the Isabelle McFive YouTube channel.

Resort Fees breakdown ($40/day)

I hit the Resort Fees hard in part one of the review of Great Wolf Lodge, but what’s the harm in rehashing the terrible value of the Resort Fees.

Life jackets – Up until a certain age/height, these are likely required to be worn, maybe by law. But beyond that, most people don’t use them.

Towels – Towels in your room are free of additional charges I believe. Towels at the waterpark… they make you feel like a degenerate. You must go to their store and request towels for the waterpark. Your towel allotment is counted and charged to your room through your wristband. If you don’t return them at the end of the day, additional fees apply.

Internet – Most places give you a basic service for free. Sure, they throttle you down but it is normally complimentary and then you can pay for an upgrade. For most people the internet service is barely used.

Virtual concierge – The hotel decided they don’t want to have an actual concierge or correspond in person with their patrons. They went out and bought a virtual system. Then they charge every customer that stays there to make up for the cost. That’s a solid return on investment for the Hotel.

Coffee maker – Single serve of sadness with no stirrer is more like it. You receive two coffee pods. And they give you a packet for your coffee that includes two sugar packets and one half and half powder packet. No stirrer. Incredible value here.

Mini fridge – The mini fridge was a good size. Here’s the kicker. I can buy a pretty large mini fridge at Walmart for about $100. It doesn’t cost too much electricity to run a mini fridge. Also, you have to either bring supplies with you or head out to Walmart. There aren’t good supply values within the hotel.

Complimentary arts & crafts – Again, you can’t call it complimentary if I am paying a Resort Fee. It’s the exact opposite of complimentary which means “given or supplied free of charge”. Let’s get to the meat and potatoes of these complimentary arts & crafts. You get a coloring page with crayons and markers provided to color on it. There were probably 40 kids there coloring. I can buy a coloring book with 40 pages at Five Below. Just a reminder the value add is low.

Kids reviews

Jordan’s Review

Great Wolf Lodge was so much fun! I loved the water park, but there were not a lot of slides. There were 7 slides to go on. My favorite slide was Howlin Tornado. This was a family tube slide where you go up the big walls a bunch of times. I also loved the arcade. There were a lot of games to play and there were a lot of prizes to win. My favorite game was the Snow Ball Toss. You throw plastic balls at the clown targets. The more you knock over the more tickets you get. The best part about the Great Wolf Lodge was MagiQuest. I got a cool wand. It lit up and it looked like a Forest. You get to choose a wizard name for the scoreboard. My wizard name was Forest Slayer. It was a super fun puzzle game. If you get bored of the water park MagiQuest is fun to play while you take a break from the water park. I would rate Great Wolf Lodge a 10/10. I loved it so much.

Little Mama’s Review

Great Wolf Lodge was so much fun! I think it is great for kids and adults. If you get lost it is very easy to find your parents. Because it is smaller we were allowed to go play on our own a little more. The room was so cool. We got the kids’ camp room. It came with a bunk bed. The only bad part about the room was the bathroom, it was very stinky. The food situation was very good and delicious. For dinner the first night I ate mini corndogs. They were amazing! The water park was not as big as I thought it would be but still it was a lot of fun. Other than the water park there is a lot to do like bowling, arcade, laser trail, VR experience, ropes course, and Magiquest. I did MagiQuest and it was so cool, it is good for all ages too!

Helmet Guy Ratings

Price…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………10

Hidden Fees (Parking and Resort)....……………………………………………………............ 1

Check-in…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7

Room ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7

Waterpark ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 6

Restaurant ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 7

Arcade …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 7

MagiQuest ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 10

Kid’s happiness ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 10

Final Verdict

All in I would give a rating of 6.5 out of 10. I would recommend giving the Great Wolf Lodge a try during a slower season. If I was there at peak business, I think that would have been tough.

I made expectations and set a bar high based on my visits to Kalahari in the Poconos. Kalahari is over 200,000 square feet. Great Wolf Lodge in Concord is 80,000 square feet. If I had really thought about that ahead of time, then I should have expected a place that was 3x smaller. For that reason, I can’t blame Great Wolf Lodge if they failed to meet my expectations.

There were aspects of Great Wolf Lodge I did not enjoy, most specifically the hidden charges, the room was musky, and the bathroom was moldy. It was also smaller than I expected.

My suggestion to Great Wolf Lodge is to add a couple of hot tubs and include a heated swim up bar for adults. I think there will be enough revenue here that they can thank me later. ��

The food was good but not something that wowed me. The price to value was not anything to be excited about. The prices indicated the hotel thought “we can charge you just enough over expectation that you won’t leave.” Unfortunately, they were right. Lucky for me I can write down how I felt at the time so I will always remember. ��

MagiQuest and the Arcade were a lot of fun. The arcade is very expensive. MagiQuest was a good value. The kids loved it and that’s what really matters.

There were great family experiences to be had, and I’ll cherish the memories I got to make with my kids. They had the best time. I would go back to Great Wolf Lodge if the kids asked me to. But I would go to a different location that is a little larger.

The King of the Savanna

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 19:28:00 GMT

If you plan to see Mufasa, be careful with how far down you scroll. Some of my perspective could be considered a spoiler .

Coming Soon!

Before we get to Mufasa – here are the Previews we saw and my initial thoughts:

Dogman – The kids are going to love this! I can’t wait to see it. Probably not big enough for me to go see it in theatres but I am still excited to see it. Fun Fact – I saw Dogman was available for meet and greet at Universal Studios!

Paddington in Peru – Hard Pass. Synopsis: A family member gets lost, and Paddington must find them. I’m not interested; the kids didn’t look interested; not sure anyone in the theatre expressed an interest. The most interesting part was the sign in the movie theatre lobby. Review edit: The kids told me they want to see this….kind of.

The Unbreakable Boy – this is going to be a tearjerker for sure. This kid is going to be inspiring. If you are going to the theatre to see this, bring a box of Kleenex. If you choose to use movie theatre napkins you can expect to have a sore nose the next day. You have been warned. I’ll have to watch this one at home. I’m not going to let people see me cry in public.

How to Train Your Dragon (Live Action) – This is a must see and the timing of release is impeccable. Right in time for the grand opening of Epic Universe.

Elio – The graphics on this cartoon look incredible. It appears very vibrant and exciting. The preview gave me a good laugh and I think this will be an enjoyable movie. Most likely I will want the couple of months for it to be on Disney+.

Snow White (Live Action) – I’ve heard a lot of negative press in regard to this movie, however, the preview looked good. I’ll likely catch this when it is free on Disney+.

Lilo & Stitch (Live Action) – Yes!!!!! This is going to be an awesome preview….. Wait, no preview? Just a release date. That was disappointing but I can’t wait to see this movie. Who doesn’t love Stitch?

Wolf Man – from Blumhouse. Close your kids’ eyes. Do not bring the kids to the theatre for this one.

Feature Presentation

As with any great Disney movie, something traumatic must happen within the first 15 minutes. Do you remember watching up and trying to hold back tears? Yes, there were a lot of tears in the audience. Some would call this emotional damage. But without the tragedy there is no movie.

Story/Plot

Mufasa gets separated from his parents as a young cub (in a very traumatic way) and is found and saved by Taka. Mufasa is adopted by Taka’s mother Eshe. As an outcast no one else in the pride wants Mufasa there or respects him. Flash Forward to adulthood. There is a traveling group of Lions trying to become the ruler of all the land by destroying all other lion prides. Taka and Mufasa now separated from their pride must find their own way and battle to the finish with this rival Lion Pride.

Mufasa: The Lion King is the prequel to The Lion King . The story is original, with some solid foreshadowing and character development. I recently saw this movie in theatres, and I was captivated and very interested to see where the story went. Due to my intake of popcorn and refreshments, I was fearful I may have to take a bathroom break and miss something interesting. Usually you would just walk away during a boring part, but there really wasn’t one for me in this movie.

Throughout the story you will witness the characters’ development align with their personalities in The Lion King . There will be choices that shape them, for instance there are a couple times that Mufasa is hanging on for dear life and Taka is faced with the decision to save him or let him fall to his ultimate demise. Taka digs his claws into Mufasa’s dangling arms. What choice will he make? The scene is reminiscent of Scar grabbing Mufasa’s arms the day he murdered Mufasa in the stampede and blamed Simba ��

I would have enjoyed a fun intro to Shenzi, Banzai and Ed but I completely understand that Mufasa had his hands full in this one. Maybe they could have teamed up and almost become friends. That would have been wild.

Rating

This movie is rated PG which means Parental Guidance and is considered suitable for children of all ages with the advisement of adult supervision under 8 as they may not fully understand themes, mild violence or language. Do I agree with the rating? Yes. However, I will say this, if this was a movie about humans and not animals it would not have been a PG rating. Young kids will not understand the killing and destruction of certain animal families. It wasn’t graphic murder scenes, but it was the plot. With that being said, young kids likely won’t notice this part. If you don’t want to explain this type of topic to your child maybe wait until it is on DVD or Disney+ so you can fast forward.

Visual Effects

The experience is visually stunning. I felt like I was there. CGI has gotten so good that I didn’t even question if these animals were actually talking to each other. It felt like Disney captured actual mannerisms and behaviors of each animal species.

Oh, and by the way, there is nothing cuter than the baby lion cubs.

Music

The music was just ok, sometimes a little meh. It felt like they were trying to compete with The Lion King . There is no competing with the songs from that movie. Some of the songs in Mufasa ran too long. I get it, the lyrics help tell the story. Just because it helps tell the story does not make it catchy or a classic. Obviously, if a bunch of lions walked around talking to themselves that would just look ridiculous, and people wouldn’t believe it. Singing their inner thoughts is the way to go.

Let’s meet the characters

Obasi – King of the Pride. Taka’s father. Not accepting of others. Needs some training from Human Resources. Probably not well liked by his peers.

Eshe – Taka’s mother. Genuinely cares about others and sees the best in them. She is a great mother.

Taka – He’s the jealous type. You saw good in him, and you were rooting for him to not be a turd but he’s a coward.

Mufasa – He’s a bit of a people pleaser but will he develop into a leader who can restore order and balance in the Circle of Life?

Sarabi – Easily trusts the men in her life.

Nala / Simba – disappeared for most of the movie leaving unfit animals to take care of their child ��

Kiara – daughter of Simba and Nala. Young and curious. Acts like a kitten and that’s cute.

Rafiki – Always full of insight. Everyone goes to him with questions. It’s fun to hear his thoughts.

Zazu – Annoying as you would expect. I’ll be surprised if he makes it to The Lion King.

Pumbaa – Naturally funny. He makes me laugh. Note: he does not wash his hoofs after using restroom. Eww. ��

Timon – Thinks he’s the life of the party. Tells a great story how he and Pumbaa defeated Scar.

Kiros – Ghostly White Lion (Main bad guy, leader of the Outsiders Pride) – Super aggressive, can’t control anger, needs therapy. Willing to kill his own pride. Better off caged up in a zoo.

Final Verdict

The story does a fantastic job as a Prelude to The Lion King and could potentially set up a larger Lion King franchise. There are opportunities in both directions of The Lion King. They can continue the story of Mufasa as king prior to Simba being born and there are opportunities to make sequels to The Lion King with Kiara and Kion. Mufasa: The Lion King has grossed over $600M worldwide with a budget of over $200M. It may not have been as successful as other movies in The Lion King Franchise but still seems like a profitable movie. The competition when it was released was incredible with Wicked, Moana 2 and Sonic 3 also in theatres.

I would recommend the movie. I believe everyone in the family can enjoy this movie. Older generations will enjoy throwbacks and nostalgia. It will also set up the new generation to enjoy the old Lion King movies. For kids that grew up with The Lion Guard, they may be excited their childhood version might be the next big screen movie.

Who’s Afraid of The Great Wolf Lodge

Fri, 14 Feb 2025 14:25:00 GMT

Great Wolf Lodge, Here we Come!

Great Wolf Lodge has been on and off of our bucket list of places to go for almost 10 years. While our kids were growing up in New Jersey there was a big competitor that kept us away. Kalahari, America’s Largest Indoor Waterpark, was being built in the Poconos. Since it was constantly under construction and development there were amazing deals going on for years. Unfortunately, as Kalahari has grown it has become more and more expensive.

Presently, we are embarking on a journey from the Northeast to South Florida and things lined up perfectly for us to make a stop at the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, North Carolina. Kellie made sure I was aware that I needed to make a planned stop during my 18-hour commute. I’ve made the trip without stopping many times, but when you are transporting precious cargo (the children) you must take precautions.

Sledding during Winter Storm Blair before our trip down to Great Wolf Lodge

I opened my computer and went to Great Wolf Lodge’s website. What luck, if I book within 48 hours, the room is only $99! Let’s compare some hotels in the area shall we.

It just made sense if I was going to spend the night somewhere it should include a waterpark for the kids! Sorry to the other hotels but kids don’t get as excited to hear we may be staying at your place. They were ecstatic and cried out with joy when I mentioned the Great Wolf Lodge.

Things that Chap My Ass About Hotels

And this is not just directed at Great Wolf Lodge. I just happen to be writing this blog while staying at Great Wolf Lodge. There are so many hotels that pull these kinds of shenanigans (I’m looking at you Universal Studios Florida Hotels). Just tell me the actual price so I can make an informed decision. Why do you have one price until you go to check out and then suddenly Resort Fees show up? I love that the room at Great Wolf Lodge includes access to the waterpark. Then when you get to the final payment screen the Resort Fee for life jackets, towels, internet, virtual concierge (really?), coffee maker and mini fridge (seriously?), and complimentary arts & crafts show up. Let me just say one more thing here. You can’t call it complimentary if I am paying a Resort Fee. It’s the exact opposite of complimentary which means “given or supplied free of charge”. Don’t mess with our intelligence while grabbing up an extra $40 a day on items that most people don’t use.

Then you have an asterisk or other indicator that I must follow at some point to identify that there is an onsite fee to park in your huge lot. Just add it to the price of the room, for real. It’s annoying and it doesn’t build consumer confidence or brand loyalty. Yay! Congrats! You got an extra $15/day out of me. But you could have just charged me $115 and told me parking was complimentary. Then you could have had a valet parking option and charged me an extra $15-20, while creating an extra job or two in this bad economy.

Ok, I got that off my chest, let’s move on.

First Impressions

We were all thrilled to arrive at the hotel. We pulled into our spot, and we were greeted by a sign to make sure we locked up our car securely and grab anything of value. Great Wolf Lodge is not responsible for thefts. Great! The kids were a little concerned. The sign doesn’t give you the impression you are in the most secure area. It seems ok here, let’s go inside.

The lobby is small but decorated very pretty and festive for the winter and holiday season. There are 4 people at the check in desk and they are not helping any guests. But wait, there are also 4 computers that say check in here placed strategically at the beginning of the line. Ok, let’s do that. I type in the name on my reservation, I scan the back of my driver’s license. Error! Scan Again! Scan worked, thank goodness. A message pops up, “Name on reservation doesn’t match the ID”. I double check the email reservation. Yep, our last name was right on the reservation. Well, the problem appears to be that the computer system at the hotel dropped the first two letters from our last name, smh.

Festive lobby view!

I continue to an agent. I let him know about the mix-up that occurred at the computer.

Another agent says, “O yea, the computer does that a lot.”

I’m a little taken aback. ( Thinking in my head how to resolve the issue. Is it something IT is working on…. Seems like it could frustrate customers….Hold up…. Not my job…. Let’s just get to the room ).

The agent that checked us in was extremely pleasant and helpful.

As a side note, almost every time I was in the lobby during the trip there was either no line at the check in counter or one to two people checking in. There were always plenty of check-in agents available. I would just ditch the computers during the slow season.

Our first picture at check in.

We are making our way through the hallway. The hallways are dark and feel dingy but that feels in line with the cavernous theme. There are lots of dark green and brown colors on the carpet and wall. It felt very woodsy. We make it down the hallway with excitement and anticipation for our room. We cracked the door open.

Wow! It looks so big. Pow! What is that smell? It’s a little musky but we can live with it. The room is huge! When you walk in there is closet space for your bags, followed by a sink that is about 4 feet wide parallel with the bathroom. Then there is another vanity with a large mirror, and the coffee maker and mini fridge supplied by my Resort Fee. Across from the vanity are the bunk beds for the kids. Further in the room is a small table with two chairs directly across from the queen bed. There is even more room for activities as there is a love seat across from a TV. To top it off we have a balcony. The room size really is a great value. You get used to the musky smell after a while. But we must keep the bathroom door closed. You open that bathroom door, and you get a strong waft of mold. We picked a bad time to forget our plugins and Febreze spray. Kellie usually makes sure those are packed. We’re staying in a waterpark so the smells, although not expected do make sense.

Our First Meal

A constant flow of Pizza Goldfish and a snack bar got us through our 8-hour drive. Our bathroom break at the 4-hour mark was at Wawa and the deli there smelled amazing. We were all tempted but we were excited to see the selection of food places at The Great Wolf Lodge.

We are deep into our drive, and we are feeling deprived of a solid meal. We are passing up amazing fast-food sign after fast food sign along the way. I keep reiterating to the kids not to worry, there is going to be something amazing at the Lodge and we are going to have an elegant meal to start our stay. My idea of elegant meal isn’t something to fancy, just your typical casual dining experience.

We got to the Lodge just after 7PM and disappointment filled within me. We can either order a pizza to be delivered to our room or there is one sit down option, the Lodge Wood Fired Grill. I remember seeing this as we were walking to our room. As we passed it during our entrance, I felt like it was small and didn’t have a lot to offer. However, we opt for the restaurant.

The atmosphere within Lodge Wood Fired Grill is ok and maybe as you would expect. It appears as a little wooden lodge with a bar in the main dining room. The bar has flaming signs over top of it. It makes sense they named it the Lodge Wood Fired Grill.

Enjoying our time at the Lodge Wood Fired Grill!

As a money conscious mind, I wasn’t excited at the prices. 6 wings for $15.99 seems steep even at a themed hotel restaurant for families. The picture of the Honey Bourbon Salmon looked delicious but based on the appearance of the restaurant, $29.99 was a little too high for me to take a risk on the meal. I settled on the Smokehouse Burger for $20.99. The Smokehouse Burger looked incredible in the picture on the menu. A 7 oz steakhouse burger patty stacked with pulled pork, crispy fried onions, bacon, sweet BBQ sauce on a soft brioche bun. Let me tell you, it was as good as it sounds. The kid’s menu had a lot to offer, and my kids chose Mini Corndogs (9.99) and a Cheeseburger ($10.99).

In the end, the price wasn’t terrible, however, it was not the upscale dining experience I envisioned throughout my 8-hour commute. I took a quick look at the map and there are a bunch of immediate options in the area such as Carrabba’s Italian Grille, Texas Roadhouse, Bonefish Grill, Red Lobster, Outback Steakhouse, On the Boarder Mexican Grill and Olive Garden, just to name a few. That doesn’t include all the Fast-Food options for those trying to save a little bit of money. This is all just to say, that was probably our first and last meal at the Lodge Wood Fired Grill. There is too much competition in the area and not enough benefit of eating at this particular location.

MagiQuest

Let me just say this was my favorite conversation of Day 1 at the hotel. The kids have heard of MagiQuest and we saw other kids doing this throughout the hotel. My nephews have said good things about their experience with MagiQuest.

Let’s go to the MagiQuest store. This conversation may be a little paraphrased but it’s how I remember it, lol.

I asked, “out of curiosity, what is the difference in the wands?”

Cashier 1 responded, “nothing.”

I was confused so I asked, “oh, so why are there different prices and types?”

Cashier 1 responds, “the one closest to us doesn’t light up but all the others do.”

My initial reaction came out, “ok, so don’t get the one that doesn’t light up. Check. I see that there are Wand Mods to give you extra powers, what are they?”

Cashier 2 helps with this one. “You don’t really need them.”

I inquired, “so, no special powers then?”

Cashier 2 responds, “the differences are minuscule.”

My final question comes out. “So, there are differences? Is one better than the other?”

It turns out there are three Wand Mods they would “recommend”. Two of which help you defeat a dragon faster and one helps you find things. They noted the Dragon at this location was strong. In that regard, it would sound like the Dragon Tamer power would be good to have. My kids are older so defeating a dragon faster might not be necessary. But if you have a small child, it seems relevant to know that your child can use a special mod and take half of a dragon’s power.

MagiQuesting throughout the halls of the hotel

Upon entering the small store we were asked immediately if we had any questions, so we had no time to look around. Although they seemed disinterested, the employees were able to help me with all my questions. Maybe there were signs that explained all that stuff, so I could understand why that would be frustrating. MagiQuest seems like a big activity in the hotel. By 9PM the hallways were lined with kids playing with their wands. Motivation is hard but maybe the MagiQuest Store could benefit by rewarding employees in some way. For example, for every 100 wand toppers they sell you get a $10 gift card to Starbuck’s. I’m sure if there were incentives there would be more excitement about how quickly you could slay the Red Dragon and his fiery wrath!

Arcade to the Rescue!!

The most expensive part of the hotel is also going to be most kids’ favorite part. There is a big arcade on the first floor by the waterpark. I can’t imagine anyone escaping from the arcade without spending a mini fortune. I tried to start small the first night. For $50 you get around 200 credits. Each game costs about 12 credits. Split that up between your kids and you and there aren’t a lot of games to be played by everyone. I let the kids know to take their time, pick games wisely and have a good time. I give the kids their cards AND BOOM the race is on. There were a lot of fun games but there are also those games that give the illusion of a lot of tickets with minimal effort. Those are the kid’s favorite ones. 20-30 minutes… that’s all it took to completely deplete our cards.

My favorite game of the night to watch Jordan play was Space Invaders. A few nights prior we watched the movie Pixels with Adam Sandler so Jordan was excited to play. This version of Space Invaders was on a huge screen with two large guns for team play. She did well, and the ticket payout was actually very good. She earned 57 tickets for the game.

My favorite game I played with the kids was bean bag toss. There are about 6 bean bags coming down on conveyor belts. You have about 30 seconds to play. You toss them at a spinning platform with three holes red, blue and green. Cornhole meets Skeeball. The big negatives on this game are you are reliant on the conveyor belt working properly, its super slow and stops, and the bean bags get caught up below the platform because the hole is not big enough for them to come out if they stack funny. All in all, it’s a fun game.

We finish up for the night. Now its time to check out the rewards store. How many tickets did you guys earn? 400 each. I can’t wait to see what you can get for 400 tickets. The store is small, and the shelves aren’t overflowing with prizes. It makes it easier to see your options. The kids have located the prize they want, a boba tea stuffed animal (2,000 tickets) and an Animal Cracker pillow stuffed animal (1,700 tickets) with each of the Great Wolf Lodge characters as the little animal crackers you can remove from the pillow. The prizes are just out of reach at the moment. I convince the kids not to spend their tickets at this time because we have two more days. We will try again tomorrow.

We’re all tired at this point so we head back to the room and turn in. As I work my way to sleep, I reflect on our first few hours at the Great Wolf Lodge. There were some bumps in the road, but I know tomorrow is going to be so much fun!

Check back in to see if I was correct. I’ll share our adventures from the next day and everyone’s final review of the hotel.

To be continued….