A Disney World Vacation with Teens and Young Adults

July 27th, 2010 | Author: Nancy

We have a different experience from many when traveling to Disney World these days: our Disney vacations now include 3 adults, since our daughter is nearly 20 and in college. Our first family visit came when she was 7, so she has been visiting Disney for most of her life…and she still loves it as much as she did back then! The magic is still there for her and for us, and we all continue to look forward to our Disney trips as much as ever.
Still, we do plan and tour differently these days. Visiting Walt Disney World with teens and young adults is certainly not like it is with little ones! As she has grown and changed, so have our Disney vacations.
Since most of what is written centers on the Disney experience with small children, I thought I’d share with you some thoughts on Disney for teens and young adults. If this is not yet where your family is, well then take some notes, because your kids will be this age before you know it!
Basically, everything you need to know about a Disney vacation with teens/young adults can be summarized in the following three tips:

Remember that they’re not kids anymore

It may seem kind of obvious, but when you’re used to doing Disney World a certain way (“but we ALWAYS ride It’s a Small World first!”) it can come as quite a shock when your children no longer want to do things quite the same way. They grow up and change, and so do their likes and dislikes. And they just may not like doing things the *way* you do. But be open to suggestions and make sure you find out what THEY want to do: don’t assume it’s what they’ve always done. I will say that in some ways, it’s harder letting go of the fact that they’re not kids anymore when you’re at Disney World than almost any other place. Try though…. They’ll really appreciate it.

Give them time/space of their own

Small hotel rooms may not be the best thing any more. Everyone needs a little space of their own, and once your adult child goes off to college and begins to do things *their* way….well again, their way may not be your way. If you can’t arrange for them to have their own room, encourage everyone to at least have time for themselves on a daily basis. See the next tip for how this may work out without you even trying.  And remember: Time alone can be good for the soul….and for everyone’s patience.

Realize that they won’t be up at the crack of dawn.

This goes back to things being different from when they were kids. As a personal example: then, it was easy for me to get everyone up, dressed, fed and out the door before 8 a.m. Now? Not so much. If you don’t have teens yet, but have heard things about how their internal clock changes….well, believe me it’s true. So just as you work your Disney vacation around a toddler’s nap time in order to avoid unhappiness and distinctly un-magical feelings…..you also need to expect that your teen/young adult is probably going to be sleeping later than you: so don’t force them to get up and go when you do. They can meet you at the parks when they’re ready.
We all know that Disney is fun no matter what age you are. This is just as true for teens and college students, as it is for toddlers. And it’s kind of fun seeing Disney World through the eyes of your no-longer little child. So what about you? Have you traveled to Disney World with a teenager? What tips would you give?
Nancy, her husband and college-age daughter live in the Baltimore MD area, but consider Walt Disney World their second “home”. She started her site, The Affordable Mouse, as a way to share ideas about how to plan affordable Disney vacations. Her favorite things at Disney World (in no particular order) are Soarin’, most of the food in World Showcase, Illuminations…and that “Disney magic”.

source : http://www.chipandco.com/2010/07/a-disney-world-vacation-with-teens-and-young-adults/

The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Walt Disney) (2010)

By A. O. SCOTT

Published: July 14, 2010

“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” is the latest movie about an ordinary fellow — it’s almost always a fellow — who is, all of a sudden and to his great astonishment, dragged into an epochal, supernatural battle between good and evil. The fellow in question this time is the distinctly unpromising Jay Baruchel, a gangly Canadian ectomorph who got the girl (though not much of an audience) in “She’s Out of My League” and who trained the cartoon dragon in “How to Train Your Dragon.” Here he plays an N.Y.U. physics major named Dave who tinkers with a giant Tesla coil in his subterranean laboratory and pines for Becky (Teresa Palmer), a pretty music lover who was his childhood crush.

Meanwhile, though, Dave has learned that he is the Prime Merlinian, which means that “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” is not just another dweeb/cutie romantic comedy, but also a phantasmagorical action picture in which bolts of lightning will shoot out of people’s hands, and ancient spells will be uttered to cataclysmic effect right on the streets of Manhattan. To spare you the full rehash: hundreds of years ago a bunch of bad wizards were stuffed into a Russian doll, including the really mean Morgana (Alice Krige) and the gorgeous Veronica (Monica Bellucci). Now two supermagicians, Balthazar Blake and Maxim Horvath, battle to let one of the ladies out of the doll — called the Grimhold, by the way — and keep the other one trapped inside.
The good news, if you are not a Monica Bellucci completist, is that the rival sorcerers are played by Alfred Molina and Nicolas Cage. Mr. Molina, who was perhaps a bit too sensitive as Doc Ock in “Spiderman 2,” attacks his villainous role, Maxim, with mustache-twirling relish. As Balthazar, Mr. Cage, having worked with the director, Jon Turteltaub, on the popular “National Treasure” series, refines the oddball intensity he brought to those pictures and mixes in new flavors of wackiness. If he has not quite approached a Christopher Walken level of sublime self-parody, Mr. Cage has at least established himself as the heir to Al Pacino in the crazy mentor pantheon.
But while Mr. Molina and Mr. Cage supply a measure of well-compensated eccentricity, their labors ultimately serve to emphasize the grinding mediocrity of the enterprise. The method of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” is to string together pedestrian moments of explanation, comedy and emotion around noisy and derivative action sequences, some of which seem to go against the very premise of the movie. Why would Balthazar and Maxim — magicians who can fly, change shape and conjure force fields, fireballs and just about anything else they want — need to climb into cars and chase each other through the streets of New York?
I put that question to a colleague, who condescendingly replied, “because it’s a Jerry Bruckheimer movie.” Duh. But still. It’s stupid. At several points Balthazar intones that the fate of mankind hangs in the balance. But it never feels as if more were at stake than the bottom line of Jerry Bruckheimer Films and the Walt Disney Company, who seem to have confected this lumbering amusement in the hopes of picking up a little Harry Potter cash in the interval between “The Half-Blood Prince” and “The Deathly Hallows.”
It should be noted, though, that “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” does have a distinguished cultural pedigree, reaching back to Goethe’s poem, which inspired Paul Dukas’s orchestral composition, which in turn provided the music for perhaps the most memorable segment of Walt Disney’s “Fantasia.” Mr. Turteltaub does pay homage to that wonderful scene, in which Mickey Mouse tries to use his half-learned powers to do his chores, but the sight of Mr. Baruchel trying to bring rampaging mops under control can only suffer in comparison. The magic in this “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” is loud, mechanical and uninspired.
“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). The fate of mankind does not hang in the balance, and no one really gets hurt.

source :  http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/movies/14sorcerer.html

Tokyo Disneyland Reopens Captain EO Attraction

July 5, 2010 | by Disney Dreaming |


Tokyo Disneyland has recently reopened the Captain EO attraction at the park, which stars the late Michael Jackson in a 3D movie. The attraction will run at the park for a limited time, through June 30, 2011.

The attraction was open at the park between 1987 and 1996.

Captain EO has also reopened at both the Disneyland park in California and at the Epcot theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.


















source : http://www.disneydreaming.com/2010/07/05/tokyo-disneyland-reopens-captain-eo-attraction/