If your family likes animals, then Bush Gardens Tampa is the theme park for you. Bush Gardens Tampa covers 335 acres and is populated by over 12,000 animals, Continue reading Bush Gardens Tampa
Category: Reviews
Discovery Cove
Last week I was able to go on a tour of Discovery Cove. This is a place I have always wanted to spend the day but just had a difficult time deciding to spend the money. It is not inexpensive.
I will be scheduling a family trip soon. Continue reading Discovery Cove
Epcot – Test Track
It has been a long time since I rode Test Track because we are line snobs and refuse to wait more than 30 minutes in a line but this visit we were able to get Fast Passes !!
Once again, in true Disney fashion, the wait is fun! You get to create your own car for the test. We started off creating a beautiful car and then we noticed that it had ratings on the top so we began paying attention to the ratings. Then we noticed the countdown and had to hurry to complete the car. Your magic band remembers your car.
While you are on the ride, signs show the car rankings. Ours didn’t show because I didn’t press my magic band to the scanner at the correct time, instead I was moving out of the way so a man could take a picture of his wife on the ride.
Here is a ‘hidden’ gem. Don’t just leave after the ride, more fun stuff awaits!
After you get off the ride, you have the opportunity to create a commercial using your car and it is emailed to you. Here is the link to our commercial – warning, the car is not beautiful! http://parklink.disney.go.com/media/ap/parklink/cards/testtrackvideo/video.html#testtrackvideo/2017-01-23/1f7522986a198095
After you leave that area, you can take pictures on cars and virtual cars – once again having them emailed to you. Taking a picture with a virtual car is not easy. Taking a picture with a real car is so much easier but still not easy!
Disney’s new Epcot Festival of the Arts — The Workshops & Seminars
This new festival celebrates the Arts and has both paid and complementary workshops. I attended two complementary workshops – one on Henna and one on Photography.
Although the workshops are complementary, there are a limited number of tickets. We arrived about 45 minutes early to get our tickets and had no problems getting a ticket but it was a Monday and they had waiting areas for tickets setup so it could have been more crowded over the weekend.
Both workshops were run by Disney employees who had worked with Disney for quite awhile and were very knowledgeable about their areas. Both workshops were informative and entertaining and worth the time to attend.
Check out the remaining workshops for this festival here: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/epcot/epcot-international-festival-of-the-arts-seminars-workshops/
Disney’s new Epcot Festival of the Arts — The Food
Disney has a new Festival — Festival of the Arts. It seems like they are always trying something new to get us to spend our day (and money) at Epcot! This festival takes place Friday-Monday until February 20th.
This festival isn’t quite as large as the Food and Wine Festival but it is still fun.
Neopolitan — Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry — Beer that is. Cost $9. Just had to give this one a try.
The strawberry was very sweet and the chocolate had a hint of chocolate flavor. My daughter thought it tasted like coffee but I did not. Neither of us cared much for the vanilla.
We then walked around the World Showcase to see what the festival was all about. There are pavilions set up all around featuring different artists and foods. The art was varied and included the original piece and some less expensive prints. It was quite windy so none of the artists were able to demonstrate their work but they were all out talking to the people.
The food, of course, was good. We had some Mexican food with sangria.
The food was excellent (under $20 for both items ) but the sangria was very sweet. It took us so long to drink the sangria that we didn’t purchase any other food or drink until we had completed our walk of the entire showcase.
After a breezy walk where we teased each other about being from Florida and freezing in 45 degree weather, we found a coffee I could not pass without trying. Although the coffee was good ($10), it was small and not mixed well.
The food is delightful to the eye and I wish we could have sampled more. I will be going back and I will be trying some of their beautiful food.
Here is a link to look at the food options during the festival: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/epcot/epcot-international-festival-of-the-arts-culinary/
A better way to shave on the road.
Most men shave every day and when I travel, especially to remote locations in Mexico and Central America and to other areas outside of the United States, I find it a pain to take the supplies.
Let’s review the options:
- electric razor – I have one but it needs to be charged regularly and that is a problem in remote areas or where the power isn’t the same as the United States.
- Regular bar or liquid soap – Not a good option for me at least. Dries my face out, doesn’t lather up or help lubricate my beard so I am a lot more likely to nick and cut myself.
- can of shaving cream – The full size aerosol can is too big and heavy for carry-on luggage, I think the small travel can is expensive and doesn’t last. In checked baggage you have to consider what if the top accidentally gets pressed? Now we have to do laundry.
So I started researching and testing other options out. And now you get the benefit of all that research and testing!
I found solid shaving soap. After trying several different ones I now use a Arko Shaving Soap Stick. It’s small, light and doesn’t require I carry a shaving brush. I carry it in a ziplock bag and just wet my face, rub the open end of the Arko over my beard and then use my wet hands to lather my face up. It provides a nice shave and I don’t have to worry about shaving cream all over my suitcase.
If you want to take an Arko stick on your next trip, you can use the link below to order it from Amazon at a very reasonable price.
Travelz with Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime membership keeps getting better and better.
While you are traveling take advantage of the following Prime features:
- Free Movies and TV shows
- Free music
- Free book each month — choose from about 6
- Free books to borrow
- Free photo storage
- Free games on Twitch
- Free audio books
Enjoy all those features while at home AND enjoy
- Free 2-day shipping on many items — be careful because all Prime items don’t have this available.
