Save Up to 25% on Rooms at Walt Disney World

Have you thought about going to Disney World? Now is a great time to go. If you stay between March 15, 2016 and June 11, 2016, you can save up to 25% on select rooms at Walt Disney World Resort hotels when you book by February 28th. Plus, when you add a ticket package with minimum 4 day theme park tickets, you can get one more ticket day for FREE! This is such a great deal. Some rooms start as low as $110 per night!

If you're interested in booking a vacation package to Walt Disney World, contact Mandy at thetravelingcircus39@gmail.com or 801-859-8970.

Christmas at Disneyland

It's time for the holidays at Disneyland!!!

November 13- January 6

Celebrate the most wonderful time of the year at the happiest place on earth!

I love Disneyland at Christmas time. The whole park is decorated for the holidays and they have special parades and fireworks that you can only see this time of the year. You might even get to meet Santa Claus! It really is so magical. It's one of my favorite times of the year to go to Disneyland!

If you would like to plan a trip to Disneyland for the holidays (or anytime after), contact me at thetravelingcircus39@gmail.com.

Mickey's Halloween Party

We recently went on a trip to Disneyland and while we were there we attended Mickey's Halloween Party. 

This is a separate ticketed event and tickets cost about $69 per person and that includes parking. The party goes from either 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm or 7:00 pm to 12:00 am depending on the night of the party. With your ticket, you can get into the park 3 hours before the party starts. Everyone comes dressed up in their costumes. They close the park early to those without a ticket so it's a lot less crowded than normal because they only sell a certain amount of tickets. Those tickets sell out so you have to make sure to buy them early. 

Here are some highlight from the Halloween Party:

Trick or Treating

How many people can actually say they went trick or treating at Disneyland? So much fun! To be honest, I wasn't super excited about trick or treating. Who needs more candy, right? But this was actually my favorite part! Even the adults got to go trick or treating! They had trick or treating stations all over the park. In each station there were about 5 candy stations. They passed out handfuls of candy or you could choose a healthy snack like carrot sticks, apple slices, crackers, popcorn, and pretzels. We left with so much candy! We also stocked up on snacks and we took them to Disneyland the rest of the week while we were there. 

Parades and Fireworks

They have certain parades and shows that are specific to the Halloween Party. This year was a little different because of the Diamond Celebration. The parade was the Diamond Celebration electrical parade but the fireworks were Halloween themed and really cool. They also have a dance party but we didn't participate because my kids just wanted to ride rides.

Shorter Lines for Rides

Because there's so many different things going on, the lines for the rides are a lot shorter than normal. We were able to ride a lot of different rides during the Halloween Party and that's what my kids like best!

The Villains

During the Halloween Party, you can meet some of the villains that you never see at Disneyland. Unfortunately, the line to meet them was about an hour and a half and we just didn't want to wait. But that was at the end of the night. The line might be a little shorter at the beginning of the night.

The Characters Dress Up For Halloween

This is the only time that you get to meet Mickey and Minnie and other characters in their Halloween costumes. If this is a priority for you, definitely do it! Keep in mind that the lines will be a little longer than if you just met them in their normal attire.

Halloween time at Disneyland

This is such a fun time of year at Disneyland when the park is all decorated for Halloween. You can still see the park decorated if you go at Halloween time and you don't go to the Halloween Party. But they bring out a few more decorations for the Halloween Party and they also play Halloween music. We were at Disneyland all week and there was definitely more of a Halloween feel at the Halloween Party than just a regular day at Disneyland.

You also get to experience Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy and The Haunted Mansion Holiday. They converted both of these rides for the season and they really did a great job! If you don't go to the Halloween Party you can still experience these rides.

We had a really great time at Mickey's Halloween Party! If you're a Disney fan, this is definitely something that you should experience at least once in your lifetime!

If you're interested in booking a Disney vacation, contact me at thetravelingcircus39@gmail.com.

Disneyland Diamond Celebration

Disneyland recently announced that they're extending their Diamond Celebration through September 5, 2016!

Come celebrate 60 years of Disney magic with 3 new nighttime spectaculars:

Disneyland Forever

Paint The Night

World of Color-Celebrate

It's going to be amazing!!!!

If you're interested in booking a Disneyland vacation package, contact me at thetravelingcircus39@gmail.com.

Earn 50,000 Bonus Points When You Sign Up for the Southwest Airlines Credit Card

Right now you can earn 50,000 bonus points when you sign up for the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards credit card and spend $2,000 in the first 3 months. You need to apply by January 15, 2016.

This is an awesome deal! They normally offer 25,000 points so this is the best time to sign up for this card.

We used this card to book our flights to California next month. We booked our flights from Salt Lake to Los Angeles for under 10,000 points per person. So 50,000 points goes pretty far!

This is the best way to save money on flights. I use my credit card for all of my purchases and pay the full balance each month. If you're going to be spending money anyway, you might as well get some rewards from it!

To apply for this credit card, click here.

Halloween Time at Disneyland

It's Halloween time at Disneyland and it's such a wonderful time of year to go. The whole park is decorated like Halloween. There are Halloween themed rides such as Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy and Haunted Mansion Holiday. There are lots of Halloween treats and the characters are dressed up in their Halloween costumes! And don't forget Mickey's Halloween Party (separate ticket required). What a fun time to go to Disneyland!

If you're interested in planning a trip to Disneyland, contact me at the number or email listed above. I can book vacation packages with hotels, park tickets, and I can help you plan a magical vacation! 

What I Do As A Travel Agent

I was recently given an amazing opportunity to become a travel agent. I'm an independent travel agent working for a host agency, Magic Bean Travel. This is the perfect job for me! I love researching and helping others plan their dream vacation. I love to share my travel tips with others and now I get to do this as my job! I also get to do this from home so that's definitely a bonus.

What kind of trips can I book?
Anything!!!!

I completed the Disney College of Knowledge so I can book any Disney trip. That includes hotel and ticket packages to Disneyland and Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Adventures by Disney, and Aulani.

I can also book all-inclusive resorts, cruises, hotels, flights, and car rentals. The possibilities are endless! If you want to go somewhere, I can book it for you.

Will it cost you extra to book through a travel agent?
No. It will not cost you anything extra. I work through certain suppliers to book vacation packages. Their prices are the same whether or not a vacation is booked through a travel agent. When someone books a trip without a travel agent, the suppliers reserve some of the funds to use when a travel agent books through them. It will cost you the same with or without a travel agent. So why not take advantage of the benefits of a travel agent?

What are the benefits of booking through me?
If you book through me, I'll share my expertise with you and help you plan all of the details of your vacation. Everything from hotel, flights, activities, dining etc. It takes a lot of time to plan a trip. Wouldn't it be nice to have someone do all the work for you? You can just sit back and relax and then go on your amazing vacation!

I know there are a lot of resources online and a lot of people like to book their own trips and find the best deal possible. If anyone understands this it's me! I'm always searching for the best deal. As a travel agent, I have access to some of the best deals out there. I might be able to find something for you that you couldn't find on your own.

Let's plan your dream vacation!!!!

If you're interested in booking a trip, or you want a free quote, contact me at

thetravelingcircus39@gmail.com.

I'll answer any questions that you might have.

Road Trip Ideas for Kids

Going on a long road trip can be hard for anyone, especially a little kid. "Are we there yet?" "I'm bored" "He's looking at me!" are things that we hear frequently while traveling. It's hard to keep kids entertained for that long.

A few months ago went on vacation to Las Vegas. I found some ideas online for things for my kids to do while we were on the road. It really made the drive a lot more tolerable for the kids. In fact, I think they actually enjoyed it!

I found a lot of really cute ideas on The Dating Divas website. I printed the Road Trip Countdown and I used this printable to make different stops along the way to our destination. Each stop was about an hour and a half apart. At each stop I had a surprise for my kids.

For the first stop, I put together these folders for my kids. Inside I gave them a notebook, pen, and some activities to do while we were in the car. I also bought my kids new crayons and colored pencils.

Here are some ideas for the folders:
1. License plate game
2. Scavenger hunt
3. Spot the car 
4. Mad Libs for kids

5. Moms Minivan (more printable games)
6. Printable coloring pages of their favorite characters
7. New coloring books
8. Blank notebooks
9. Stickers
10. New crayons and/or colored pencils

For the next stop, I filled one of the bags with pretzels, portioned for each kid. It's amazing that something as simple as pretzels makes my kids so excited! I filled the other two bags with treats and snacks that they like. It was really pretty simple but they loved it!

My kids were so excited to see what their next surprise was! They were actually looking forward to the drive. It really helped break up the drive and it made it a lot easier. Instead of thinking about how long until the final destination, they were thinking about the next stop which was only an hour and a half away.

Here are some other road trip game ideas:

Alphabet game

I Spy

Would you rather? Here are some funny questions for kids

20 Questions

Road Trip Questionnaire

Family Friendly Las Vegas Vacation

We recently went on a family vacation to Las Vegas. When we were deciding where to go for Spring Break, I was a little hesitant to take my kids to Las Vegas. There are a lot of things in Vegas that I really didn't want to expose my kids to. It's called Sin City for a reason, right?

Our main reason for choosing Las Vegas was because we wanted to go somewhere warm and fairly inexpensive. We booked an extra vacation through RCI at Grandview Las Vegas and it was a killer deal. We would've spent a lot more money going to the coast or somewhere else that is warm during Spring Break.

After going on this vacation, my opinion of Las Vegas has changed a little. Yes, there are things that I'd rather my kids not see. But we planned things to do that kept our kids a little sheltered from those things. Our condo was about 15 minutes away from the strip so we felt like we weren't in the middle of Las Vegas and all that comes with that. Our condo had 4 beautiful swimming pools and we spent a lot of our time there. We had so much fun and I would definitely take my kids here again.

Here are the things that we did in Las Vegas to make it a family-friendly vacation:

Hoover Dam/Lake Mead
Most of the things I read about Lake Mead was about their boating, fishing, and hiking. But I also read online that there is a beach and swimming area at Lake Mead so I thought it would be fun to take the kids there. I wasn't sure what to expect because I haven't really heard a lot about it. Well, it wasn't the most desirable area. The beach had very little sand and it was very rocky. The water in the lake was pretty dirty. But my kids had fun and that's all that matters.

Before we went to Lake Mead, we went to the Hoover Dam. This was really cool and I really wish we would've spent more time here. My kids were so excited to go to the lake so they didn't want to be at Hoover Dam and they thought it looked boring. It was pretty crowded and we had a hard time finding a parking spot. So we stopped and got a picture and then we left.

In hindsight, I wish we would've skipped the lake altogether and just gone to Hoover Dam. I think my kids really would've enjoyed it if we spent more time there.

At Hoover Dam they offer tours but they are pricey. If you want to just walk around it's free.

Ethel M. Chococlate Factory and Cactus Gardens
This chocolate factory is located just outside of Las Vegas, in Henderson. They offer free self guided tours at the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory. When we went there, they weren't doing much in the factory so we really didn't get to see anything. So I would maybe call ahead next time and find out when is the best time go. But they offered some free samples in the gift shop. They also have a small M&M World store right next to the chocolate factory. It's not nearly as big as the one on the strip but it was still fun to walk through the store. My favorite part about this place was the cactus gardens outside. It was so much fun to walk through and take pictures. I would definitely recommend coming here for a free activity with the kids.

Circus Circus
Most of the things we did in Las Vegas were free but we told our kids that we could choose one activity that's a little expensive. Our kids chose the Circus Circus Adventuredome. This is an indoor theme park inside Circus Circus. You can purchase ride tickets separately or you can buy an all day pass for about $30 a person. (We found coupons for $4 off each person just outside the elevator at the resort where we stayed.)

My kids love theme parks and roller coasters so this was the perfect activity for them. There were a lot of fun rides and we had a blast! It definitely wasn't Disneyland but we also weren't paying Disneyland prices.

We also went to Midway at Circus Circus during our day here. In the middle of Midway is a stage where they perform free circus acts throughout the day. This was super fun to watch! Surrounding the stage are lots of carnival games. Each game costs $1-2 and I think they're pretty generous with their prizes. We gave each of our kids $5 to play games and we left with 15 stuffed animals! This was definitely a highlight for my kids. Such a fun day!

Aquarium and Mermaids at The Silverton
At the Silverton, there is a large aquarium with lots of fish and some mermaids that swim around. It's also free. My five year old is always pretending she's a mermaid so I had to take my kids to see this. It was so cool to see a mermaid swimming around an aquarium and interacting with the kids. The mermaid swims are only on certain days so make sure to check the website before you go.

Connected to The Silverton is a Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World. This was one of the coolest stores I have ever been to. It's huge! If you're going to The Silverton, I would definitely recommend checking out Outdoor World while you're there. 

Las Vegas Blvd. (The Strip)

This is the place that I typically try to avoid with kids. But there are a lot of really fun free things to do here. If you go at the right time, it really isn't bad. We went on a Thursday around 11 am and we stayed all day. We started at the Flamingo and walked to MGM Grand. Then we crossed the street at New York New York and walked to Caesar's Palace which is across the street from the Flamingo. It took us about 8 hours to do all of this. I have to say this was my favorite day. There's something about the lights and the people and the music that draws me in. Every once in a while I had to tell my kids to look away so they wouldn't see something inappropriate but it didn't happen very often. Maybe it's because we went during the week. I'm not sure. But I really didn't feel like my kids were exposed to much.

These are the places we went on the strip (All of these places are free):

The Flamingo
Outside of The Flamingo they have a Flamingo Habitat with birds and flamingos. Definitely worth checking out!

Coca Cola Store

This store is full of Coca Cola memorabilia. I love looking at all of the products, especially the vintage Coke products. Upstairs they have a snack bar where they sell Coke, Coke Icees, and Coke Floats. You can also buy a sample platter with Coke products from around the world. This was my 10 year old's favorite thing of the day because he got his own 32 oz Coke!

M&M World
This store has four floors of M&M products. They have a wall where you can buy M&Ms by the pound with every color and flavor imaginable! They're a little more expensive here but it's fun to buy any variety you want. On the third floor they have a 3D movie which is really fun.

 

Hershey's Chocolate World
This store is similar to the M&M store but with Hershey's products instead of M&Ms.

Bellagio Fountains 

This is one of the most iconic places on the strip and the fountain show is always so much fun to watch!

Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
Inside the Bellagio is a beautiful garden that is changed seasonally. It's so beautiful and so fun to walk through.

 

  
Worlds Largest Chocolate Fountain
Just past the botanical gardens in the Bellagio is the worlds largest chocolate fountain located at Jean-Philippe Patisserie. It was cool to see. I wouldn't make a special trip just for the chocolate fountain but if you're going to the Bellagio, it's fun to check it out. The pastries at Jean-Philippe Patisserie also looked delicious. If we hadn't eaten so many M&Ms that day we might've gotten dessert!

Caesar's Palace
This is one of my favorite places to walk through on the strip. Inside Caesar's Palace is the Forum Shops which is like a really high end mall. There is a also a Fall of Atlantis show which includes fire, water, talking statues. Unfortunately, we missed this show because we weren't in the right place when the show started. It starts every hour on the hour. We weren't exactly sure where it was and we were on the opposite end of the Forum Shops. The Fall of Atlantis is located by the Cheesecake Factory.


Las Vegas Sign

This is probably the most iconic place in Las Vegas. Just past the Las Vegas strip is the Las Vegas sign where you can stop and take photos.

There's so much to do in Las Vegas and we couldn't do everything! Here is a list of other kid-friendly activities that we did not do. Most of these cost admission but a few of them are free: 

Madame Tussauds
CSI: The Experience
Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat
Mandalay Bay Shark Reef
Springs Preserve
Mob Museum
Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition
Pinball Hall of Fame
Red Rock Canyon
Excalibur Tournament of Kings
Volcano at the Mirage

Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom is the most popular of the Disney World parks and it is also my favorite. It is the park that is the most like Disneyland. It was very similar but yet there were enough differences to make it unique. To me, it was like someone picked up Disneyland, shook it around a bit, took out a few attractions, and added a few. It seemed very familiar and I knew my way around the park. But it also was different enough that I found myself walking in the wrong direction outside of Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. It's in a totally different place in Tomorrowland than I'm used to!

Fast Pass+
Magic Kingdom has more fast pass+ rides than any of the other parks. You can choose any 3 of the following:

Ariel's Grotto
The Barnstormer
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
Enchanted Tales with Belle
Festival of Fantasy parade
The Haunted Mansion
It's a Small World
Jungle Cruise
Mad Tea Party
The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
Main Street Electrical Parade
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Mickey's PhilharMagic
Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor
Peter Pan's Flight
Pirates of the Caribbean
Princess Fairytale Hall: Meet Cinderella and a Visiting Princess
Princess Fairytale Hall: Meet Anna and Elsa from Frozen
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Space Mountain
Splash Mountain
Tomorrowland Speedway
Town Square Theater Mickey Mouse Meet and Greet
Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid
Wishes Nighttime Spectacular

As you can see, there are many choices. You can choose form most rides and also character experiences and parades.

I would recommend getting fast passes for some of the bigger rides like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain, or Splash Mountain. The lines for those rides usually get pretty long so it's always good to have fast passes for those. If you have a princess fan in your family, it's a good idea to book fast passes to meet either Cinderella or Anna and Elsa. Without a fast pass, you're looking at a wait that's at least an hour on a good day.

When we went to Disney World last year, I booked my fast passes 30 days before our trip. All of the fast passes to meet Anna and Elsa were already booked! Crazy, right! With me being the persistent person that I am, I was determined to get fast passes. So I checked every day and I split our family up a little. It's hard to book 6 fast passes at the same time, especially for something that goes quick. Somehow I ended up booking all 6 fast passes to meet the Frozen sisters within the same window. They weren't all at the exact same time but there was about a half hour that overlapped with all of our passes. So we only had to wait 10 minutes to meet them! The wait time posted was over 2 hours!

The best thing I can recommend with the fast pass+ at Magic Kingdom is to book the rides or attractions that you really want to experience first thing in the morning. Once you've used those fast passes, check the wait times on your My Disney Experience app to see which rides have the longest wait. Then go to a kiosk and book a fast pass+ for one of those rides and then head to that ride. Once you've ridden that, do it again. We did this over and over. We probably used about 10 fast passes in one day. The longest we had to wait in line that day was about 15 minutes. Keep in mind that it was raining that morning so that affected the crowds. But I'd say we had a very successful day!

Here are some of my favorite things about Magic Kingdom:

Enchanted Tales with Belle
If you get a chance, you definitely need to do this. It's a character experience and a show combined. They choose volunteers to act out the story of Beauty and the Beast. Belle comes into the room and all of the volunteers retell the story. It only takes about 5-10 minutes for the show and then Belle takes pictures with everyone who participated. My husband was a lucky "volunteer" who got chosen. Anyone who knows him knows that he hates being the center of attention or doing anything like this. It was so fun and we loved it! The wait for this is sometimes pretty long so if this is a priority then I would recommend getting a fast pass+ for this.

Festival of Fantasy Parade
This was a really awesome parade. We really loved it! It featured most of the Disney characters including Elsa and Anna. You definitely need to check this parade out if you get a chance.

Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor
This was one of the highlights of our trip. This is an interactive show with the characters from Monster's Inc. You're watching the characters on the screen but they're interacting with the audience and choosing people to pick on. They pick a few people from the audience to give a hard time to throughout the whole show. It's really funny! The best part was when they showed "Boo" from Monster's Inc. and I looked up at the screen and saw my adorable little girl! Who wouldn't want their child featured as one of the cutest characters ever? They also picked my son from the audience to tell him some jokes. This was definitely a really fun show, and not just because my kids were featured!

Talking Mickey
Have you ever met a Mickey Mouse who talks? Well in Town Square you can meet talking Mickey. It was kinda crazy to hear him talk but it was so much fun. Definitely worth waiting in line for.

Favorite food at Magic Kingdom
We ate at Columbia Harbour House and ordered a Lobster Roll which was really good.

We also ate at Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe. Their selection includes hamburgers, barbecue pork sandwiches, and chicken sandwiches. My daughter fell down outside of this restaurant and started crying. One of the employees felt bad for her so they gave her a free brownie. That's one of the things I love about Disney! They make everyone feel special.

You also need try to a Dole Whip at Aloha Isle. This was the first time I've ever had one even though I've been to Disneyland multiple times. I thought it was good but my daughter got the Dole twist with orange and I liked that a little better than the Dole Whip Float.

Favorite Rides
Hands down, my favorite ride at Magic Kingdom is Splash Mountain. There's something very nostalgic about that ride that brings me back to my childhood. We love all of the rides at Magic Kingdom but some of our other favorites include Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Space Mountain. Unfortunately, Seven Dwarfs' Mine Train was not open yet when we were there so my kids were super bummed about that. That just means we need to go again, right?